


These Things Take Time

by pinkwallflowers



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abusive Parent, Angst, Billy and the oc aren’t really together at all, Billy is an asshole, Billy is bad with words, Canon Divergent, Child Abuse, Friends With Benefits, Hurt, I forgot how to tag, Lots of Angst, M/M, Male Carrier, Male Pregnancy, Mentions of Abortion, Miscarriage mention, Mpreg, Parent Chief Hopper, Season 2, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love, billy and Hopper friendship, billy has a v and a p, billy has daddy issues, billy is mean to poor Steve, but Steve is mean too sometimes, flirty as hell billy hargrove, intersex verse? I guess, max and billy friendship, mpreg!billy, not very fluffy, oc is just a tiny plot point I promise, steve Harrington’s heart eyes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:34:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkwallflowers/pseuds/pinkwallflowers
Summary: Season 2 canon divergence after Billy beats the shit out of Steve. They begin a kind of friends with benefits situation which leads to Billy getting knocked up. I’m very bad at summaries! This is ⚠️MPREG⚠️ DO NOT READ IF THAT IS NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA!
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Billy Hargrove & Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove/Original Male Character(s), Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 121
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Again this is ⚠️MPREG⚠️ Male pregnancy! This is sort of A/B/O without the A/B/O just the carrier part where some males have both a vagina and a dick. It’s normal in this universe! Also, my timeline is probably off when it comes to the end of season two, haven’t watched it for awhile and didn’t write this till I saw season 3. This is my first fic in this fandom be nice please 🥺🥺 hopefully no ones too OOC and if I missed any tags let me know ❤️❤️

It had only been two weeks since the events at the Byer's place and Steve's face was only just starting to heal. The deep blues and purples of his bruises finally lightening up to lilacs and soft greens. He hadn't seen anyone since Christmas break started, preferring instead to stay in the safety of his own home. It was lonely sure, but it was warm and safer than it was outside. 

Steve's hair had gotten a little longer than he usually let it since he decided to skip his monthly hair cut. The thick strands laid across his forehead in an unfamiliar way, softer than he was used to since his can of hairspray had run out days ago. He was feeling restless, like a stranger in his own skin lately and he just wanted to step outside his body for awhile and float off into space. 

Contrary to most people's opinions, he wasn't feeling this way because of Nancy and Jonathon. He loved her at one point and it still hurt to know she had been lying to him all along, but he was getting over it. The whole world just felt unfamiliar and he felt like he barely belonged in it anymore. Like he knew too much to just keep living normally. 

He stood from the couch he had been lounging on and adjusted his sweat pants and his sweatshirt before moving to the door and pulling on a pair of boots. It was cold outside but not snowing yet, thankfully. The sky was dark as Steve pulled open the door and stepped into the brisk air. He contemplated walking around the town for awhile or driving as his fingers found his carton of cigarettes in his pocket. He pulled them out and flicked open the lid, sighing when he saw that he only had two meager sticks left. He took off down the street pulling a cigarette out as he went, lighting it up. The flame went out a couple times but Steve persisted until it caught causing the cherry to glow red. 

Hawkins was dead at night. Everyone tucked into their beds by 9:30 it seemed. Steve was never one for going to bed early, his brain wouldn't let him sleep before three most nights. The bags under his eyes proved it, if the sleeping in past noon didn't. He continued down the quiet street, lights overhead flickering as he went. Steve liked walking at night it felt safer than daytime did. He knew it sounded crazy, seeing as he knew what exactly went bump in the night. Maybe it was the fact that no one else was up and he could have a moment of peace to himself out in a chaotic world. 

Steve turned down Old Cherry Lane and went stiff as he heard screaming coming from one of the small houses. His eyes zeroed in on the totaled Camaro in the driveway and he almost decided to turn and walk back the way he had come. Suddenly before he could make a move the front door slammed open with a bang and out came a stumbling Billy Hargrove. Steve could see an older man, most likely Billy's father, looming over the teenager in the door way. He was yelling something that Steve couldn't exactly make out. 

"Yeah well fuck you old man!" Billy screamed as the door was slammed in his face. 

Steve held his breath as Billy turned still cursing under his breath angrily. He pulled out a cigarette from his back pocket and started attempting to light it. Once the cherry had caught he took in a long drag and let his eyes close. The left looked bruised already and Steve could see that his full bottom lip appeared to be split if the blood dripping down his chin was anything to go by. 

Steve stepped backwards, and like the clumsy idiot he was, tripped over a crack in the side walk successfully falling on his ass with a squeak. He looked up to see Billy staring at him from his porch with what appeared to be an amused glint in his eye. 

"Well I'll be! Harrington is that you?" He asked as he bounded down the driveway and across the street. 

He stood over Steve with a wicked grin and sucked on his cigarette, blood from his lip staining the white filter. He blew the smoke out slowly as he kneeled down in front of Steve. 

"What the hell are you doing on my street at 2 in the morning?" 

Steve's mouth opened and closed as he pushed himself to his feet and stepped back from the volatile boy. 

"I-I wasn't aware that this was your street," he stuttered out as he brushed his sweatpants off. 

He looked up to see Billy sizing down his body and deeply wished he would have taken the time to change into his normal jeans and push his hair back. Billy narrowed his eyes as he took another drag, letting the smoke hit Steve in the face. 

"Mhm so what are you doing out here all alone pretty boy?" Billy asked. Steve's eyes fell to his knuckles curled around the cigarette. They had marks on them like he had been in a fight. Steve wondered if they were still from his face or someone else's. 

"Got tired of being in my house, wanted a change of scenery I guess." 

Billy's tongue flicked out over his lips as he dropped his cigarette to the ground and dug the toe of his boot in it. "Got any plans?" 

Steve's eyes widened and he shook his head no. "Why?" 

Billy grinned again and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jean jacket. "Cause I'm damn bored and apparently you're the only other person that's awake in this god forsaken shit hole." 

"I'm not hanging out with you! No, no, no. You smashed a plate on my head! The bruises still haven't went away," Steve laughed and went to turn, Billy's hand on his bicep stopping him. 

"It was just a thin little plate, it's not like it did that much damage right?" Billy tried reasoning but sighed when he saw the glare on Steve's face. 

"I've had worse ya know?" Billy muttered and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, go take your little stroll alone." 

Steve grumbled under his breath and pushed past Billy to continue his walk down Cherry. He was a few steps forward when he heard the boots stomping behind him. He stopped and the sound of footsteps stopped as well. He turned and narrowed his eyes at Billy who was grinning behind him. 

"What?" Billy shrugged. "Just taking a walk down my street no funny business." 

Steve sighed and began walking again. It wasn't until they started down a new street that Steve stopped again and turned to face Billy. The boy was infuriating, always trying to push his buttons, pull his pig tails. Billy stopped as well and stared back at Steve. His blue eyes looked excited to be holding his attention and Steve honestly didn't know what the guy wanted from him at this point. 

"What do you want?" Steve practically yelled, hands on his hips. 

"I'm bored Harrington I already told you, come on all I have is Tommy and the guy is a complete moron! I'm sure we could get along," Billy said and took two steps forward so that he was side by side with Steve. 

"Yeah sure, you wanna be friends I completely believe you," Steve  
muttered. 

"Woah, hey, I never said friends I just said that I was bored Harrington relax," Billy said throwing his hands in front of himself. 

Steve rolled his eyes and continued walking, Billy right next to him like a Labrador. They kept walking until they came up to the high school. Billy got a wicked look on his face, well more wicked than usual. He ran in front of Steve all the way to the gymnasium. He looked up to the windows that led to the weight room and grinned. He reached into his boot and pulled out a pocket knife. Steve wasn't surprised that he had one. 

"What're you doing?" Steve asked as Billy reached up and started to pry the window open. 

"Opening the window, what does it look like pretty boy?" Billy grunted as he forced the window open. 

"Uh breaking and entering?" Steve said and looked around to make sure no one could see them. The school was empty due to the time and the holiday break. 

"Formalities," Billy shook his head and pushed the window all the way open before lifting himself up and sliding through. 

Seconds later his head popped up in the window and he grinned. "Go to the door I'll let you in." 

Steve still couldn't believe that this is where the night had led him. Breaking into the school gym with no one other than Billy Hargrove. Steve let out a breath before pushing his hair back and walking to the door obediently. The door flung open and there was Billy leaning against it smugly. He stepped aside and gestured for Steve to enter.

"Your highness," the younger boy grinned smug as ever as Steve stepped past him. 

Billy let the door close behind him and jovially hopped past Steve further into the weight room. Steve followed apprehensively a few feet behind him. Billy ran straight to the door that led to the basketball court and flung it open. The door practically hit Steve in the ass as he followed and watched as Billy hopped around the basketball court like a wild dog. 

"Are you on something? Pot? Coke?" Steve called out curiously as Billy practically bounced off the walls. 

"High on life Harrington!" Billy called back whooping excitedly when he spotted a stray basketball under the bleachers. 

"Think fast!" He yelled before hurtling the ball at Steve. 

All the air rushed out of his lungs as the ball smacked him in the chest roughly before bouncing off down the shiny court. Billy pouted and ran after it like the dog he was. He came back towards Steve again and tossed it just as roughly as his chest, this time the older boy managed to catch it. 

"Fuck off with that," Steve grumbled and bounced the ball on the floor away from himself. 

"With what?" Billy asked innocently as he retrieved the ball again. He came rushing at Steve again and this time he pushed him away. 

"I really don't even know why I followed you here, I must actually have brain damage," Steve muttered and crossed his arms over his chest defensively. 

Billy bounced the ball against the ground while giving Steve an unnerving look. "Awe come on Harrington, play with me I'm bored." 

"First off you don't want to play, you want to be a dick, and second off I really don't want to play with the guy who tried to kill me!" Steve yelled, hands on hips, brown eyes narrowed. 

Billy sighed and shifted the ball in his hands. "Look I'm sorry that you made me mad and I beat the shit out of you." 

Steve laughed and turned to leave. "Even when you apologize you still blame everyone but yourself." 

Billy frowned and Steve continued to walk towards the exit. "Have fun playing by yourself Hargrove." 

"Wait!" 

Steve turned to see Billy with what appeared to be an almost sincere look on his face. "I was an asshole—

Steve cleated his throat and raised his eyebrows. 

"Am! I am an asshole." 

"A big asshole," Steve added. 

"A big asshole yes," Billy agreed with a nod of his head. 

"With bad hair." 

"Yeah with bad— wait no, my hair is—okay so not the point here," Billy frowned and shifted on his feet. 

"Can't we just hang out as not friends and play some basketball and drink beers or something?" Billy asked, blue eyes widening hopefully.

Steve sighed, ran his fingers through his mess of hair and let out a groan. "Fine, just don't throw it at me and don't be a dick." 

Billy grinned widely, white teeth looking sharp and dangerous. "See, that's the king Steve we all know and love." 

•••••

Steve didn't know why he let it continue but he did. After the night of basketball in the high school gym he found himself on Cherry almost every night. Billy, as if anticipating his arrival would be sitting on the curb in front of his house smoking a cigarette or holding a six pack of beer under his arm awaiting him. He would grin that sharp smile and Steve would ask himself for the millionth time what he was doing fraternizing with the enemy as Dustin would call it. 

Steve was still pondering this question as he turned onto Cherry street to see Billy sitting on the hood of his car, dressed in a jean jacket that was definitely not warm enough for winter in Indiana. The younger boy smiled and shot him a two finger salute as he slid off the hood and walked to the drivers side. 

"Hop in Harrington, we're gonna go for a ride." 

Steve came to a stop in front of the newly working car. "You fixed it." 

Billy smiled his smug smile and tilted his head. "Wasn't too hard to do, I had money saved up anyways." 

Steve walked to the passenger seat and slowly opened the door. Was getting in a car with Billy, the guy who beat his face in a good idea? Probably not but Steve had been feeling pretty reckless lately. He fell into the passenger seat and looked around taking in how neat it was. He wasn't shocked, Billy obviously cared about two things, his appearance and his car. 

"Where are we going?" Steve asked as Billy pulled out of the drive way slower than he had ever seen him drive. It didn't last long seconds later they were flying down the street tires squealing. 

Billy looked over at Steve and nodded to the back seat where a 12 pack of beer was resting. He winked and took a sharp turn to where Steve knew led to the rock quarry. 

"Is getting drunk next to a literal cliff a good idea?" He asked, cringing when he realized how much of a mom he sounded like. 

Billy chuckled and turned off the car. "Don't be such a damn baby Harrington." 

Billy reached into the back seat grabbing the beer and then stepped out of the car into the cold night. Steve sat in his seat a little longer before stepping out. His breath puffed in front of him as the cold bit at his cheeks. Billy tossed a can at him and Steve barely caught it in his hands, saving it from the hard ground. 

"Here," Billy said and held out his knife he pulled from his boot. 

Steve sighed and took it from him stabbing the beer and opening the top causing the liquid to gush out quickly into his mouth. Billy watched with a smirk before taking his knife back and doing the same with his can. They did this back and forth until they both had a pleasant buzz going for them. For once in weeks Steve felt a little better and to his surprise it was with a guy that was attempting to make his life a living hell. 

"So what's with you and Princess Wheeler?" Billy asked after belching unattractively. 

Steve winced and grabbed another can. "That's an off limits conversation Hargrove."

Billy snorted. "Okay then, just thought she looked awfully cozy with Byers that's all." 

Steve focused on playing with the metal tab on his beer twisting it until it fell off and into the can. "Well, we're not together anymore so she can do that I guess." 

Billy's smile fell a little at Steve's deflated tone. "Like I told you before there are plenty of bitches in the sea." 

"She's not a bitch," Steve said defensively causing Billy to put his hands in front of him. 

"Okay sure, whatever you say man." 

Steve relaxed a little and took another swig from his can. "It just didn't work out, I mean—she kinda lied about being in love with me for a year and was sorta—I guess in love with Byers the whole time, and she dumped me at a Halloween party called me bullshit, and left with him, but—I swear she isn't a bitch." 

Billy looked at Steve who returned the look before they both burst out laughing. 

"I don't know Harrington I'd say that kinda makes her a bitch." 

Steve wiped his eyes and let out a few more giggles. "Yeah I guess it does." 

They say in silence for a few minutes both slurping on there beers before Steve cleared his throat. "So..." 

"So..." Billy repeater and raised his eyebrows. 

"Why'd you guys leave California, I mean I overheard that it had something to do with Max's dad or something but I dunno man seems deeper than that," Steve said and tilted his head to look at Billy. 

Steve could see Billy go stiff, his muscles tensing and his hands gripping his can too hard. "My dad said I was running with the wrong crowd." 

Steve furrowed his brows. "Wrong crowd?"

Billy nodded and looked up at the sky. "So he made us move as far as we could and I guess that led us to fucking Indiana." 

"So drugs or..." 

Billy sighed and rubbed his hand on his face. "My dad he's—he isn't very accepting." 

Steve felt clueless as to what Billy was meaning and turned to fully face him. "Sorry if I sound slow right now or something but like, I don't really get what you mean." 

"God Harrington I swear you can be so stupid," Billy muttered before crushing his can and tossing it. He turned to Steve cupped his cheeks and pulled him so that their lips smashed together roughly. 

Billy pulled away and blinked at Steve, his buzz making him feel like he was spinning a little. Steve's eyes looked even wider than normal as he took in what had just occurred. He blinked twice and then touched his lips before looking back at Billy. 

"Oh." 

"Yeah, oh," Billy mocked and pushed up from the hood of the car. 

"He caught me with this guy after he strictly told me that guys were off limits, and bam here I am in butt fuck Indiana," Billy laughed. He was sure it was the beer causing him to be so honest. 

"Wow," Steve sputtered out and blinked owlishly again. 

"Look if you don't wanna hang out anymore I understand but I will kick your ass if you go around telling everyone anything I just told you, it's my business to tell not anyone else's," Billy said getting in his face. 

Steve held his hands out to push against Billy's shoulders. "Woah, hey man I'm not gonna say anything relax." 

Billy stumbled and laughed, "he was all, 'now Billy just cause all these softies think it's okay for men to be with men and to carry babies now doesn't mean that it's acceptable for you, do you understand me?!" Billy said in his best impression of his fathers voice. 

"Then when, I guess, I didn't understand his terms he slapped me around to make sure I wouldn't slip up, I was fourteen when I found out that I wasn't like other guys, that I was a—a carrier I guess and since then he's had me on a damn leash," Billy muttered and looked over at Steve to gauge his reaction. The other boy was staring back at him shocked and Billy wanted the ground to swallow him up. 

"I said way too fucking much," Billy muttered and went around the hood of the Camaro to climb into the drivers seat. 

"Just forget I said anything." 

"Wait! Wait I'm not gonna say anything Har-Billy just—let's talk about it!" Steve said and tried to open the passenger side door to find that Billy had it locked. 

"Fuck off before I run you over princess, it's not like we're friends or anything," billy sneered before turning the engine on a slamming the gas. 

Steve watched helplessly as Billy drove off leaving him stranded and tipsy in the dark forest alone. 

•••••

The next few days found Steve walking to Cherry only to find the street void of any other person. He would stand all desperate across the street from the Hargrove residence and hope by staring at it Billy would come out but he hadn't had any such luck in three days. Finally, on the fourth day he decided to just pass the Hargrove house on the way to the high school. He opened the same window that Billy had a week earlier and climbed through. He found himself in the gym bouncing the stray ball absentmindedly as he thought of how he was going to get Billy to talk to him again. 

Steve understood that in a place like Indiana, male carriers would be a shock to a lot of people but he thought that in a progressive place like California it would be accepted, maybe even celebrated. Steve had never met a carrier, or at least a carrier that was honest about their status. He had a distant cousin that he distinctly remembered his parents talking about when he was a few years younger. They hadn't talked bad about him necessarily but he knew that they were happy that he wasn't one. 

Steve remembered seeing Neil Hargrove that first night that he and Billy hung out. The man was a piece of work who obviously used his fists more often than his words. No wonder Billy was so angry all the time and tended to use the same coping mechanisms as his father. 

"Boo!" 

Steve jumped in the air with an undignified squeak as he held the basketball in front of him as some sort of shield. When he lowered it he was surprised to see Billy grinning around a cigarette. The blond took the basketball out of Steve's hand and jumped to dunk it in the basket. 

"Look like you saw a ghost Harrington," Billy laughed as he dribbled the ball around the brunette. 

Steve put his hands on his hips as his mouth opened and closed not sure what to say. "You're back." 

Billy chuckled. "It's only been four days, you miss me Pretty boy?"

Steve flushed and he wasn't quite sure why the nickname was affecting him. "What no, psh why would you ask that?" 

Billy smirked. "Oh my god are you blushing?" 

"What?! No!" Steve laughed uncomfortably as his cheeks flamed with heat. 

Billy prowled towards him like a jungle cat and hip checked him as he passed by. "Did finding out my status really make you hard for me?" 

Steve knew that Billy was teasing by the way he sucked his cigarette and blew the smoke towards the roof with a howl of a laugh. 

Steve cleared his throat and tried his best to glare. "No." 

Billy howled again with laughter and let his cigarette dangle from his lips. "This is honestly great! King Steve might actually cream his pants cause of lil ole' me!" 

"Shut up!" Steve muttered and stole the ball from Billy. 

Billy crowded against his back. "You ever been with someone like me?" 

Steve tripped over his feet and almost face planted. "I don't think there is anyone like you Hargrove." 

"That's damn right! But you know what I mean amigo," billy smirked and smushed his cigarette against the side of his boots to put it out. 

Steve licked his lip nervously and went for a shot at tossing the ball into the basket, he missed. "Well...no." 

Billy's smirk grew even wider as he ran to get the ball. He dribbled it slowly while staring down Steve like he was his prey. He tossed the ball at the basket, making it in of course. He let the ball bounce off as he lifted his shirt off and tossed it to the side. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he watched Billy's lean muscle move with him as he retrieved the ball once again. 

"My eyes are up here Harrington," Billy joked as he came up to him dribbling the ball slowly. 

Steve huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes. "Okay, enough with the teasing we all know that you're hot." 

Billy looked pleased. "So is king Steve a little virgin?" 

Steve laughed out loud. "Uh yeah, no dude I'm not a virgin." 

Billy stuck his tongue between his teeth. "Mhm I forgot you popped Princess Wheelers cherry." 

"I told you not to talk about her like that." 

"Relax, don't get your panties in a twist Stevie," Billy muttered with a chuckle before pressing into Steve's space while dribbling. 

"What about you huh? All talk no action probably," Steve said and pushed against Billy as he stole the ball and ran down the court. Billy watched with amusement.

"You think that I could be a virgin?" 

"Well I mean you, yourself said that your dad keeps you on a leash so," Steve said with raised eyebrows. 

Billy rolled his eyes. "Not that tight, I'm here with you right now aren't I?" 

"Touché," Steve nodded and tossed the ball at the basket, Billy jumped up and blocked it successfully. 

"There were some guys in California who were pretty hot for me if you must know," Billy muttered flashing Steve a smile. 

"One guy, he was like twenty-six," Billy started, watching for Steve's reaction. 

"Had huge hands—

"Woah okay, no, no, no, I so do not wanna hear about some older pervert guys big hands," Steve interrupted and stole the ball from Billy who was chuckling happily at his reaction. 

"Such a prude King Steve." 

•••••

"When I was a kid I wanted to be just like my dad isn't that hilarious?" 

Billy tilted his head to look at Steve who was nursing his fourth beer in the backseat of the Camaro. He laughed around the neck of his own bottle. 

"Yeah? Well I never wanted to be anything like my old man," Billy muttered and took a swig of the bitter liquid. 

"Always liked my mom more," Steve mumbled. "I mean until she turned into this stone cold bitch who listens to everything my dad says." 

Steve turned to look at Billy. "What about your mom?" 

Billy sat up straighter. "I don't wanna talk about that." 

Steve pouted. "Awe come on man I've been spilling my soul here the least you could do is—

"Drop it." 

"Come on—

"Drop it or get the fuck out of my car Harrington," Billy practically growled showing off his sharp teeth again. 

"Woah relax man you don't have to tell me anything," steve muttered. "I just thought we were kind of friends now." 

Billy laughed and downed the rest of his beer before turning in his seat to face Steve. He had let things go way too far, Billy knew he couldn't actually be friends with Harrington. His dad might actually kill him if he found out where he'd been going every night during winter break. 

Billy raked his eyes over the older boy and took in his appearance. His hair was back to its perfect state that it usually was in, all sprayed down with his hair spray and tucked neatly into place. He was also back to wearing his light jeans and wind breakers. He looked good, not what Billy would have went for in California but cute and almost innocent. 

"Look Harrington, we're not friends," Billy said and sighed when he saw Steve's face fall. 

"Let's just do what you've been waiting for so we can both move on, I mean after Christmas break we'll be back to acting like we don't know or like each other." 

"What do you mean?" Steve asked looking as dumbfounded as usual. 

Billy rolled his eyes and reached down for his belt buckle. "Let's fuck." 

Steves eyes widened. "Uh what—I—

"Jesus Christ Harrington close your damn mouth you look like a fish," Billy muttered and leaned forward to kiss Steve square on the lips. 

It took a minute before the older boy responded but when he did it was enthusiastically. Billy mentally sighed knowing that he was right and that all Steve wanted from him was the exotic experience of sleeping with a carrier. Well if that's what King Steve wanted then Billy was sure as hell going to deliver. 

Billy pushed closer to Steve allowing him to deepen their kiss. The brunettes hands were unsure as they gripped Billy's hips as the younger boy lifted himself onto his lap. His thick thighs bracketing in Steve's legs. He ground his hips down against Steve and heard as the other boy let out a groan, his hardness pressing against him. 

"Feels like you're fucking packing Harrington," Billy whispered hotly into Steve's ear. He was sure that he smelt like the cheap beer they were drinking. 

"Too many clothes," Steve groaned as he pulled at Billy's top. His voice was thick with desire and probably too many beers. 

Billy obliged and pulled his top off before pulling Steve's off as well. His hands fell to the his belt again and pulled his pants down below his hips. His hands fell to Steve's next and popped his button. Steve watched with warm eyes as Billy reached into his pants and gripped him tightly. His hand was warm as it moved up and down his length making him impossibly more hard than he already was.

"Hold up," Billy muttered before leaning away from Steve to reach into the front to turn his radio on. Bad Boys (of Rock and Roll) by Twisted Sister was on and Billy couldn't help but laugh as twisted back around so that he was facing Steve on his lap again. 

"Lost my virginity to this song," Billy mumbled as his hand slipped around Steve's cock again. 

"Jesus." 

Billy smirked at the blissed out look on Steve's face as he pulled his hand towards his own pants. Steve hesitated with his fingers at the top of Billy's briefs. Billy raised his eyebrows and squeezed him in hand. 

"Are you taking a moment of silence or some shit Harrington? Praying to the damn pope? Get a move on," Billy muttered feeling the beer actually settling into his blood with a pleasant buzz. 

Steve laughed nervously and ran his fingers along the dark blond hairs next to Billy's belly button. Billy rolled his eyes with a huff attempting valiantly not to find Steve being nervous cute. 

"I Uh—like I said before—I've never like," he paused to let out a breath. "I've never slept with a guy like you." 

Billy smirked and took Steve's hand again pressing it into his pants. "This," he said as he pressed Steve's hand to his hardened cock and made him put his hand around it, "is my cock just like yours pretty boy." 

Steve's hand felt warm as it engulfed Billy's cock. It wasn't quite as big as Steve's but it was still a good six and a half inches when hard. Steve experimentally squeezed him causing Billy to sigh and smile at him. 

"See not so hard." 

"Well I mean it's definitely hard," Steve grinned as he laughed at his own joke. 

"Don't make me regret this Harrington," Billy sighed and pushed Steve's hand further down past his balls to a more hidden spot. 

"Woah," Steve gasped as Billy pulled his hand out leaving Steve's to explore him. 

"Better than any little bitch you've ever fucked that's for damn sure," Billy said smugly as Steve pressed his finger into his warm, wet hole. 

"Dude I mean—I remember health class and learning about ya know, carriers, but holy shit this is hot," Steve gasped as he moved his finger in and out of Billy. 

"Do you—I mean—have you been fucked here before?" He asked curiously causing Billy to smirk. 

"Wouldn't you like to know Pretty boy," Billy winked and ground his hips down on Steve's fingers. 

"Can I call it a—I mean—a pussy? Or..." 

"No, I'm not some chick Steve Jesus, we don't call it anything, got it or I'll go find some other guy who can—

"Okay, okay I got it you're not a girl, you're a carrier," Steve nodded enthusiastically. 

"So hot," he whispered almost to himself and Billy could feel his cock jerk in his palm. 

"Do you want me to blow you or..." Billy offered as Steve's fingers pressed inside him again. 

"No, I mean it would be nice, but I'd rather just do it ya know?" 

Billy rolled his eyes, drunk Steve had such a way with words. "Yeah okay, do you have a condom?" 

Steve's eyes blinked owlishly for a minute before he was scrambling for his wallet with one hand, the other still inside Billy's pants. He passed the folded leather to Billy who took his hand off of Steve's cock in order to open it and pull out an old looking condom. 

"When's this from? Your old mans prom night Jesus," Billy huffed as he opened the package.

Steve giggled drunkenly, "it's from freshman year when my dad insisted on me keeping a few in my wallet." 

Billy raised his eye brows and carefully opened the package. "Well that sounds promising." 

Billy pressed the condom to Steve and rolled it on like a pro. His dad might have kept him on a leash but Billy still got around in California enough to know what he was doing. Once the condom was securely on he looked up to see Steve watching him with lustful eyes. Billy shifted out of his jeans so that they were under his knees and leaned up, bumping his head on the roof of the Camaro in order to get Steve's cock at his entrance. He maintained eye contact with the brunet as seated himself knowing that it drove most guys, including himself wild. Steve's hands immediately went to Billy's hips and squeezed as Billy settled. 

"How's that? Better than Wheeler I'm sure," Billy muttered and rolled his hips. 

"Yes," Steve nodded and watched Billy like he was some kind of rock god and Steve was a fan girl pushing against the barricade. 

The song on the radio switched to She's Hot by The Rolling Stones and Billy moved his hips faster to the beat watching as Steve's wide brown eyes closed at the sensation and his full lips parted with a groan. The sound brought more confidence to Billy, not like he was lacking in that department. He threw his head back as he gripped Steve's shoulders and let out a noise his previous lovers enjoyed. 

Steve's eyes opened and watched the dirty blond push his fingers into his curly mullet and then down his body to his own cock. Steve thought it was probably the sexiest thing he'd ever seen in his life. The metal glinted off of Billy's earring as he pushed his hips down harder and harder until Steve was seeing stars and Billy was suddenly tighter as he came. Steve relished in the sensation and pride of having made his partner cum before he did. 

"Shit Billy m'gonna cum, fuck you're so damn hot," Steve mumbled and pulled Billy's face down to his by his chiseled jaw. He crushed his lips against Billy's plush ones as he came hard, his whole body shaking with it as Billy moaned to spur him on. They sat forehead to forehead for a moment while both caught their breaths before Billy lifted off of Steve and fell back on the seat next to him with a grin. 

"Who knew you had it in you Harrington." 

••••

Steve heard him before he saw him. It was two days after New Year's Eve and school was starting up again soon. His loud ass hair metal music was blasting as Billy flew passed where Steve was parked at the store. His wheels screeched against the pavement as the teenager turned into the parking lot and parked right next to where Steve was leaning against his car attempting to light up a cigarette. 

"Fancy seeing you here," Billy grinned as he slammed the Camaro into park and hopped out of the car. He made his way towards Steve and stole his cigarette. He kept eye contact as he took a drag and blew the smoke into Steve's face. 

"Mom sent me to get milk," Steve muttered. It wasn't that he didn't like his parents he just didn't like when they came home for a week at a time before leaving him again without even spending any time with him. 

"Awe little mamas boy Stevie gettin' milk for his mommy," Billy teased before smashing the used up cigarette into the ground with his black boots. 

"Wanna go...shoot some hoops," Billy suggested quietly, his eyes raking down Steve's body quickly before flicking back to his brown eyes. 

Steve perked up at the thought of getting his hands on Billy again. "Why not." 

Steve watched Billy get back in his car and speed off, figuring he would just follow him in the Beamer. Steve tossed the milk into the backseat before sliding into the drivers seat and following Billy to the high school parking lot. Steve hopped out and followed Billy into the school where they usually broke in. Billy was wearing tight jeans and a white t shirt looking all Springsteen and Steve couldn't help his eyes falling to his ass as he followed him to the court. 

"School starts really soon," Steve muttered as Billy picked up the ball and began dribbling it. 

"Uh huh," Billy replied and tossed the ball to Steve. 

"Well you uh, said that we weren't gonna hang out anymore when school starts," Steve said with an awkward cough as he shot the ball at the hoop, missing. 

Billy crossed his arms over his chest and gave Steve another one of his wicked smiles. He sauntered over and stood in front of Steve. "Stop looking at me like that, I'm not your—your girlfriend, we fucked, the end." 

Steve frowned. "But I mean you seemed like you had a good time, I did and I thought we could—

"I did have a good time, but I don't want to like date you or anything," Billy rolled his eyes. 

Steve felt his heart drop a little. He crossed his arms over his chest hoping he looked like he didn't care, but in reality he was just trying to hug himself a little. 

"So, if I was just some fuck to you why'd you want to play basketball with me?" 

Billy frowned and bounced the ball in front of him. "Uh cause I don't really hang out with anyone else? You're my only option." 

Steve huffed a laugh. "So I'm your pathetic back up plan for when you're bored?" 

Why was Steve always everyone's safe choice, the kids, Nancy, and now Billy's. Maybe it was his fault for being too available. He was too available to drive, too available to fuck, too available to fall for people. Steve honestly was bullshit. 

"Look Harrington, I'm not really the fuck them more than once kinda guy and I thought that I made that clear," Billy told him sounding a little irritated as he let the ball roll away from him. 

Steve laughed again. "I just thought that you'd change your mind, that you did change your mind when you invited me here." 

Billy rolled his eyes again and sighed before walking over to Steve and popping the button on his jeans. "Look, if it'll get it out of your system we can fuck real quick." 

Steve backed away from his hands and gave Billy a look that Billy couldn't really decipher. "I don't—I didn't want a quick fuck." 

Billy groaned and tugged at his curls. "Well that's all I'm offering and the deal is gonna expire in," he checked his watch, "twenty seconds so...tick tock." 

"Ya know what? I think that Nancy was wrong I'm not bullshit! You're all bullshit!" Steve yelled and pulled at his hair in a frustrated manner. 

He looked at Billy who looked equal parts annoyed, amused, and regretful and turned away from him. "Don't fucking ask me to hang out anymore." 

"Oh come on Harrington, don't be such a damn baby," Billy called after him. 

"Fuck off Hargrove." 

Billy watched him leave and let out a sigh. He wasn't very good at relationships. 

••••


	2. 2

School started and Steve was finding it hard to avoid Billy. Everywhere he turned he swore the younger teen was standing there staring him down. During basketball practice, Billy was constantly on his back as per usual goading him and taunting him, pushing him around. He did all of this with his usual smirk. Steve had felt serious when he told Billy he didn't want to mess around with him anymore, but seeing Billy topless in those short shorts and knowing exactly what was under them made it hard to keep strong. 

Steve snapped out of his thoughts as coach blew his whistle signaling for everyone to hit the showers. Steve was the first one inside pulling his shirt over his head and wiping his sweaty forehead with it. Tommy .H. was laughing and talking much too loudly for Steve to bear with another senior Mark. The latter was newer to the school, having just transferred in September. From what Steve had seen the guy was a bit of a dick. He wore flannels with the arms cut off and a jean jacket all the time. The guy had even taken to wearing a fingerless glove on one hand and Steve was pretty sure it was because he saw the trailer for some new movie about kids in detention. It was a John Hughes and Steve would never admit that he was looking forward to seeing it. 

"I swear! Stacy had a party the weekend before last and I fucked him," Mark whispered loudly and nudged Tommy's arm. 

"Yeah sure," Tommy rolled his eyes causing Mark to pull his shirt off showing off an impressive hickey under his collar bone that looked like it was almost healed. 

"Believe me now?" Mark asked and pointed at it. 

Steve kept undressing and sighed audibly when Tommy and Mark came up beside him. Tommy leaned against his locker with a raised eyebrow. 

"What do you want?" Steve asked looking between both guys. 

"Mark here said he fucked Hargrove and that he has a—a—that he's a carrier," Tommy said with a snicker like the possibility was ridiculous. 

Steve looked between them and clenched his jaw. "Okay and?" 

Tommy rolled his eyes again as Mark pointed to the hickey again. "He doesn't believe me obviously!" 

Steve grabbed his towel and put it around his hips. "Maybe you should just ask Hargrove, Tommy." 

"Ask Hargrove what?" Billy asked as he entered the room, chest glistening with sweat and his shirt thrown over one shoulder. 

Tommy's mouth opened and closed and Steve couldn't help but let out a chuckle at his expense. Mark looked smug and pointed to his hickey again. Billy looked annoyed as he usually did but this time his eyes went to Steve's and he was smirking. Oh great he's going to use this against me Steve thought and waited for Billy's next move. 

"Oh that," Billy said casually. "Yeah I fucked Mark, what the fuck does it have to do with you?" 

Tommy's mouth opened and closed again with shock as his eyes widened. "What? You fucked Mark??" 

"I've fucked more than Mark, right Harrington?" 

Steve wasn't entirely sure but it looked as if a hint of jealousy was washing over Tommy's features. Steve was just shocked into silence that Billy had admitted his status so readily. Billy had threatened beating him up if he told anyone and here he was telling the whole locker room. 

"What you want the dirty deets so you can beat your meat to it when you're all alone tonight cause no one wants to fuck you including your slutty ass girlfriend?" Billy asked as he pushed past Tommy and grabbed a towel. 

Mark snickered but it didn't last long, soon enough Billy was shutting him up by punching him quickly in the face. "I'm not one of your pathetic girls that you get to gossip about to your boys, got it?" 

Mark gulped as he cupped his eye. 

"And I'm not sure if shooting your load in twenty seconds really counts as something to brag about anyways."

Steve watched him walk away and looked back at Tommy who was red faced and Mark who was glaring at Billy and also looking ashamed. Steve left them there and went to the shower, leaving his towel on a hook. He began soaping up his body and hair when Billy appeared next to him. He attempted to ignore his obvious looks which made Billy try to get his attention even harder. Steve turned away from him as he began to wash his hair out and sighed when the water was turned off on him. 

"Really? Can you not be a child for like a minute?" He asked irritably and peeked an eye open to look at Billy who was giving him a sultry gaze. 

"What? Not in the mood to play with me Harrington?" 

Billy's tongue shot out as he licked his bottom lip. Steve tried not to, he really did, but his eyes fell to Billy's chest as his hand pushed suds down, down, down to where Steve had definitely seen intimately. Before his eyes got a good look he quickly pulled his gaze back up and away from Billy entirely. He could hear Billy chuckle at his expense as his water came back on. Steve rinsed quickly and turned to look to see if anyone else was in the shower before he turned back to Billy. 

"You don't have to mess with me ya know? I'm not a desperate pity fuck and you obviously have a line waiting for their turn with you so just stop with the game you're playing man," he muttered, hands on his hips. 

Billy smirked again, much to Steve's annoyance and raked his eyes down Steve's body stopping at his groin. "Ya know, your face is serious, your voice is serious, but I think," he laughed and covered his mouth with one hand, "your cock thinks differently." 

With that Billy stepped passed him out of the shower leaving Steve embarrassed and covering his crotch with both hands with red stained cheeks. 

•••••

It was a week later when a knock sounded on Steve's door at 2 in the morning on a Saturday. He was still awake watching some game show on the tv in his living room. He sat up and wiped the Dorito dust that was stuck on his fingers onto his sweat pants. He walked to the door slowly and peeked out the window. 

"What the hell?" He asked out loud as he looked out and saw Billy Fucking Hargrove standing on his porch stubbing a cigarette out on his mother's favorite flower pot. 

He pressed his head against the door and wished that he hadn't just rubbed Dorito cheese all over himself. He thought back to the state of the living room, soda cans thrown all over and a six pack of beer that had been strewn all over the ground for over a week now. He ran back and quickly piled the junk into a small trash can and sat it back in the kitchen where he had gotten it. He fixed his hair quickly before pulling open the door. 

"Uh...hey man what's up?" 

Billy shoved Steve out of the way and made his way into the house. He stood at the bottom of the stairs that led to Steve's room and turned to face the other boy. 

"I was in the neighborhood and figured I'd check out your digs Harrington, and damn not too shabby," Billy grinned and took his jean jacket off leaving it at the bottom of the stairs. 

"We uh...haven't hung out in awhile so this is unexpected—wait how'd you know where I lived?" Steve asked and scratched his scalp awkwardly. 

"Everyone knows where King Steve lives," Billy rolled his eyes before adding, "Mark told me duh, he's an idiot that has no chance fucking me again...but he has good weed so." 

"Why does Mark—ugh not important, did you need something?" Steve asked putting his hands on his hips after closing the door. 

Billy kicked his shoes off and started up the stairs. "A tour would be nice." 

Steve rolled his eyes."Hey where are you going?" 

Billy climbed the stairs and turned towards Steve's room. Steve followed him up and self consciously watched from the doorway as Billy walked around his bedroom. He was like a kid in a candy store, wide eyed and touching everything. He thumbed through Steve's record collection and raised his eyebrows at the sheer amount of Hall and Oates it included. He pulled out one of Steve's dads Led Zeppelin records with a genuine smile and pulled out the record from the sleeve. 

"'Not bad Harrington." 

Billy put the record back in its spot before falling back on Steve's overly plaid bed. "This where you fuck all your girls?" 

Steve gave him an unimpressed look but didn't respond causing Billy to snort. "Still gonna give me the silent treatment?" 

Steve didn't respond again so Billy sat up on his elbows and spread his legs in his tight jeans suggestively. "Mark doesn't even have a big cock, not like yours." 

Steve raised his eyebrow at him. Billy sat up straighter. "Really, scouts honor Harrington, I was drunk so it's not like I came or anything," he said and stood up to crowd into Steve's space. 

He pulled the brunet into the room and sat back down on the bed so that Steve was standing between his legs. "I came with you, you know I did." 

His fingers fell to Steve's button on his jeans and he looked up through his lashes with a smirk. "Come on Stevie just for ole' times sake." 

Steve groaned partly annoyed and partly turned on as hell. "You're like the worlds biggest brat, bigger brat than the whole damn Party combined." 

"I'm gonna take that as a compliment Harrington," Billy said and popped the button on Steve's jeans. 

Steve went to speak but his voice was lost as Billy's mouth took his cock in deep. He internally cursed at himself for letting Billy walk all over him so easily. But, the guy could suck cock, he had to give him that. 

•••••

"I still meant what I said before, I don't do casual sex," Steve muttered as Billy reached over him to grab his pack of cigarettes. 

Billy fell back against the bed, light from the street lamps outside glistening off his sweat slick body. He pulled a cig from the carton and turned to put it between Steve's lips. He quickly lit it and waited for Steve to inhale before he took the cig back and put it between his own lips. He held it in his lungs for a bit before slowly blowing it out. He let out a sigh before sitting up in the bed and getting out ass naked. 

Steve watched as he grabbed his jeans from the floor and pulled them up his thick legs. American thighs Steve immediately thought of the AC/DC song and thought it fit Billy well. Billy didn't bother with buttoning them as he found his white muscle shirt that had been tossed onto Steve's desk. When he was fully dressed, excluding the items he left on the stairs he made way for the door. 

"Wait, where are you going?" Steve asked standing up and stumbling to find his boxers as Billy left the room. 

He stumbled out of the room one foot in his boxers. Billy was already at the door. "Hargro—Billy wait what the hell?" 

"I don't do relationships Harrington I thought I was pretty clear before." 

"Then why are you here?"

Billy put one boot on and laced it up. "You're good in bed, thought all that sissy relationship crap was just talk. What fucking teenage guy wants to be in a serious relationship instead of just fucking anyways??" 

"Thought I gave you a pretty good deal man," Billy muttered. 

Steve sighed and desperately wished he could figure out a way to make Billy stay and want to figure things out with him. Instead he stayed silent and watched as Billy laced his other boot and pulled on his jacket. 

"You're so fucking confusing man, you want to hang out and be friends but then you say we aren't friends! Then we fuck and now that I want something—I want more you don't want to do any of it? I don't fucking get you," Steve said with his hands on his hips as Billy reached out for the door. 

"Look, I think I made myself clear, if I wanted a clingy girlfriend I'd go get one Harrington, could probably get with try to get with that Wheeler Bitch, know she's into two timing her guys anyways," Billy said with an animalistic look. 

Steve shifted on his feet before coming to a decision. "If you leave then don't come back expecting us to fuck again, I can hang with you sure, but I want a relationship not a fuck buddy." 

"You're such a fucking chick Harrington, whatever later," Billy said and quickly left the house.

Steve stared at the door and waited to hear the familiar rumble of the Camaro as it peeled out of his driveway. He fell back on the stairs and pushed his hands through his already mussed up hair. 

"Jesus Steve you really know how to pick em don't you?" He asked himself with a groan. 

•••••

A few weeks passed and eventually their usual routine, minus the sex, started up again. Billy would show up at his house at random times to watch movies or listen to music and occasionally they'd find themself in the car just talking or drinking together. It was all pretty normal, almost like Billy had forgotten they had slept together, like they were friends or something. Steve hadn't though and it still stung knowing that Billy didn't want to even try out a relationship with him. They worked as friends though, they ran like a well oiled machine and sometimes it had Steve wondering if Billy was right not to want to be in a relationship. 

"Steve, Jess has been staring you down all night dude," Tommy H. nudged him with his elbow drunkenly as music pumped into the small suburban house that was filled passed its capacity. 

Steve swallowed some more beer in his plastic cup before looking across the room at the girl Tommy was nodding to. She was pretty. Fluffed up blonde hair and puffy bangs falling across her forehead. She had on tight jeans and a hot pink body suit with padded shoulders. Her lipstick even matched the whole ensemble and Steve could imagine that talking her into bed would be pretty simple. It was something old Steve would do, last year probably. New Steve didn't do casual sex but looking across the room at Hargrove who was laughing with Mark and some other guys from the team had him rethinking his moral code. 

"She's cute," he told Tommy with a shrug and decided to walk over to talk to her. 

It was like Billy was always watching him though and soon enough the blond was blocking his path with a jovial smile. His arm went across his shoulders guiding Steve away from Jess and out the door to the porch. 

"Here," Billy said as he passed Steve a cigarette. 

"Loud as shit in there." 

Steve looked at Billy as the younger boy reached out and lit his cigarette quickly. He felt like he had whiplash. One minute he was pursuing casual sex with Jess and now he was staring into Billy Hargroves blue eyes and wondering how in the hell he got here. Billy took the cigarette from Steve's lips when it was apparent that he wasn't going to take a drag himself. 

"What're your plans for graduation Harrington? Daddy gotta nice office with a view with your name on it?" Billy asked with a smile around his cigarette. 

"Yeah he does. Don't think I'm gonna take it though I wanna move to a city, Chicago maybe? New York? Somewhere bigger than here, I don't think there could be anything worse than getting stuck in this shit hole," he muttered wishing he had another cup of beer. He stole the cigarette back, Jess temporarily leaving his mind for the time being. 

"What about you? California calling you?" 

Billy chuckled and nodded. "Yeah think I'll go back and I dunno, surf or start a rock band or something." 

Steve could see him doing that. Billy center stage in tight pants and eyeliner rocking out in front of thousands of screaming fans. "I can picture that." 

"M'not gonna be stuck in this shitty town either that's for damn sure," Billy sighed. 

Steve stubbed out the remains of the cigarette and watched as the ash flaked off and parts of it fell into the wind. Billy's eyes were on him and he knew the other boy was trying to keep him from going into pursue Jess for whatever reason he had to. Steve didn't want to play games though, they'd be graduating in less than two months and then they'd both be moving on. 

"I'm gonna head back in, later Hargrove," Steve said and pushed his way back into the house straight towards Jess. 

He could feel Billy's blue gaze on his back through his wind breaker and he knew that the other boy wanted him to turn around, but not enough to just admit it. Steve stopped in front of Jess and gave her a charming smile. Her gaze went from Steve's face to her friends that were gathered around her as she let out a giggle. Steve ran his fingers through his styled hair knowing that most girls liked that and looked around the group of her friends. 

"Ladies, you're all looking nice tonight," he smiled charmingly at them before zeroing in on Jess. 

"Can I get you another drink?" He asked and she smiled and thrust her empty cup at him. 

"Sure." 

••••

Steve was pretty sure that he was buzzed at this point. Jess was on top of him kissing his neck and palming his cock through his blue jeans. The bedroom was dark, save for some light streaming in from the hallway from under the door. From what Steve saw as they stumbled inside it was some little girls room with the walls lined with teddy bear wall paper and a doll house in the corner. He almost felt bad about having sex on some kids bed but as Jess popped the button on his jeans and pulled him out, the thought slipped his mind. Her hand stroked him too gently for his liking as her soft lips still worked at his neck. 

"Okay party's over get the fuck out," A voice boomed as the door was thrown open clumsily. 

Jess jumped and pulled her top back over her bra and Steve just sighed at the sight of an obviously drunk Billy Hargrove standing in the doorway already shirtless. Jess looked down at Steve for him to do something and Steve turned to look at Billy. 

"We're kinda busy," he said and gestured to his dick that was still out in the open. 

Billy smirked evilly. "I said to get the fuck out," he said mock patiently before booming, "NOW!" 

"You're such a dick!" She cried putting her arms back through her top. 

Jess scrambled off of the bed quickly and ran past Billy who at this point had stepped into the room fully and shut the door behind her. He looked down at Steve and rolled his eyes. 

"You couldn't fuck me so you went after some frizzy haired sophomore Steve? Isn't that...pathetic?" 

Steve sat up on his elbows and glared at Billy as the latter walked about the room scoffing and flicking at the porcelain dolls that lined a wall. 

"You know what? It's none of your business who I'm fucking cause you already made it clear that you weren't interested in anything more than a quick fuck, so maybe you should go," Steve muttered and cursed his own body for not softening at all. 

"Uh...what you were doing before I came in with Blondie out there, I think counts as casual sex, the one thing King Steve black listed remember?" 

"You don't know that! I could be totally in love with—with—

"Jen," Billy supplied with a smirk. 

"Yeah Jen!" 

"Her name is Jess you idiot," Billy muttered. 

"Uh whatever Billy, I don't like her like I like you though! We get along—hell we're even like...friends now so why not just try?" 

"Oh shut the fuck up with your going steady bullshit, you don't want to be in a relationship with me Harrington, you think I'm gonna take you out and bring you home to meet my parents??" He laughed as he moved towards Steve and crawled up on the bed so that he was straddling him. 

"Yeah I do," Steve said and gripped the younger boys thighs. 

Billy rolled his eyes and Steve power played him and flipped him onto his back. Billy squirmed under his body not used to this intimate of a position. He tried to push at Steve's shoulders to flip them again but Steve wasn't having it. He pressed his full weight into Billy's body and pinned his wrists over his head. Brown eyes bore into blue as Steve leaned in and gently kissed him. 

"Don't fucking speak for once," Steve whispered gently causing Billy to squirm again. 

"Wait—

Steve pressed his lips to Billy's plump ones again to silence him. "I'm kind of done waiting Billy, this time I'm in charge, no riding, I'm in charge and I'm going to fuck you on your back just like this." 

Billy's words caught in his throat as Steve ground down on him slowly. He had never let another person be in charge in the bedroom before, typically he'd use the other to get off before making an escape but this felt different already. Steve's hands caressed all over his body softly, reverently. Billy tried to resist letting himself go to the feeling but he couldn't as Steve gently began tugging on his tight jeans. Billy lifted his hips to help him get them off and blushed as Steve looked down at his naked body. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before but his gaze felt more intense, more loving and Billy couldn't stand that look. 

"Hurry the fuck up Harrington," Billy muttered and tried to pull him back down but Steve stopped him by gripping his hardening cock and stroking it gently. 

"Hey, slow down not everything's a damn race," Steve teased. 

Billy sighed and relaxed back into the bed as Steve pushed his own jeans down lower on his hips. His hands were clumsy and Billy was reminded that they both had quite a bit to drink. Steve laughed at himself as he sat back and finally got his jeans halfway down his legs successfully without falling off of the bed. Billy couldn't help but smile at the look on Steve's face as he crawled back on top of Billy clumsily. 

"M'gonna rock your world," he said as Billy adjusted his legs so that Steve could slide between them. 

"Is that right?" He asked smirking at Steve's drunken confidence. 

"Oh yeah," he nodded and leaned down to press a kiss to Billy's mouth. Billy leaned into it wanting to chase Steve's lips and devour them. 

Light streamed under the door from the party happening just feet away and the sound of bass was shaking the walls. Billy could faintly hear Burning Down the House playing from the hallway and he tried to focus on that instead of thinking about the love sick expression that hadn't left Harrington's face. Steve's forearms fell to the sides of his head and without warning he was pushing into Billy gently, his breath fanning onto Billy's face. 

"Shit, I don't know if that pace is gonna rock my world Harrington," Billy breathed, mind stuck in a drunken haze. He wasn't sure what had made him more drunk, the whisky he had stolen from his dad or the look of pure bliss on Steve's face as he pumped into him without taking his eyes off of Billy's. 

"Shhh just relax and stop being bossy for a damn minute of your life," Steve said and Billy could smell the beer on his breath. 

He let out a noise as Steve shifted a little reaching a part inside of him that he hadn't experienced for awhile. He grasped Steve's back and wrapped his legs around him like some sort of koala. Steve made an appreciative noise and pressed deeper and slower. His noises were driving Billy crazy and all he wanted to do was flip them over so that he could take what he wanted from Steve. He knew it wasn't going to happen though, Steve was set on being in charge. 

"You're amazing," Steve whispered into his ear, nipping at the skin gently. 

"Shut up," Billy replied lamely feeling as if he was treading uncharted waters with the way Steve was treating him. 

"No really Billy—baby you're so good, so good," Steve groaned long and moved his lips to Billy's kissing him so deep it felt like he was going to mold into him. 

"Don't call me that," Billy sighed with a roll of his eyes and his hips. 

His thrusts became more erratic and Billy was relishing in the feeling of Steve's tight abdomen rubbing against the sensitive skin of his dick. He knew he was going to cum before it happened, he felt it building but when he did, it hit him hard, harder than it ever had before. Steve had him whining and writhing as he continued to thrust through Billy's orgasm chasing his own. 

"Oh fuck m'gonna cum," Steve muttered and for a minute Billy's drunk mind cleared as he tapped him on the back quickly. 

"Pull out, I mean it Steve pull out," he said urgently and Steve groaned. 

"Shit I love you." 

As soon as he started to cum Steve pulled back and came all over Billy's stomach mixing in with the younger boys own mess. He panted for a few seconds before looking down at Billy who looked confused and pissed at the same time. He sat up quickly and reached for something to wipe himself off on without looking at Steve once. 

"I should go—

"Wait no, Billy I totally didn't mean that you know I didn't! It was just a heat of the moment thing ya know?" Steve said quickly and jumped to his feet pulling at his jeans to cover himself. 

Billy nodded and wiped at his eyes. He suddenly felt like he was eleven years old again and his mom had just left. He wasn't sure why, maybe because he hadn't heard the words that Steve had gasped in a long time, since that day and it was just too much for him. He wasn't sure he just knew his heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest if he didn't get the fuck out of the bedroom and far away from Steve and his big hurt puppy dog eyes. When he turned back to Steve the boy looked upset and embarrassed and Billy knew that he had fucked up letting him get so close. He wasn't relationship material, he couldn't bring Steve home to meet his parents, he couldn't meet Steve's, as soon as school ended he'd be gone. 

"You know what? I think you were right, maybe we need some time apart for a bit, I'm leaving when summer comes man I don't plan on staying in this shit hole town, you're just—you're getting attached," Billy practically whispered as he awkwardly zipped his jeans and buttoned them up. 

"Dude I'm cool! I'm like—ice! I'm super chill I'm not attached at all," Steve fidgeted looking the complete opposite of his words. Billy laughed causing Steve to frown. 

"Look, this is what I do, I fuck around and then pretty boys like you get attached and then I break them like fucking porcelain dolls," Billy said gesturing to the wall of dolls. 

"I'm not like those guys," Steve said confidently, puffing up his chest a little. 

Billy smiled and shook his head. "You're just like them Harrington and I think you fell in the damn honey trap faster than any of those idiot surfer dudes." 

Steve looked like his ego was wounded and he stepped forward to cup Billy's face. "We don't have to tell anyone, just you and me, it'll be good Billy, we'd be good for each other—hell we are good for each other." 

Billy walked to the door and clenched his jaw. Photograph by Def Leppard was playing and shit, Billy was a little pissed that the song would be tainted by this moment, he fucking loved Def Leppard. 

"This is why Wheeler jumped ship Harrington, you fall way too fucking easy man." 

Steve looked away, embarrassment and hurt flashing over his features. 

"If you're ever in California look me up Harrington, or don't," he said and promptly left the room like he had so many times before. 

Steve watched him go cursing at himself for letting out those damning words. He fell back on the bed and wondered if Jess was still hanging around the party or if Billy had ruined that for him too. With a determined sigh Steve wandered back to the party and decided that King Steve could come out to play for the night. It wasn't like the kids were there to get mad at him, or Hopper, Or Nancy. Hell he was pretty sure Billy had bailed like he always did. He must have sounded crazy, begging a guy like Hargrove to date him, shit the guy had beat him to a pulp months earlier. How pathetic. Maybe he did need to detach himself from him. Maybe he did fall too hard and that's why no one stuck around. 

Maybe Steve Harrington was just too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have the next chapter written already so it will be coming soon 💕 hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! I’d love to hear what you thought


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that Billy is an asshole who isn’t gonna be like extremely nice to Steve really quickly. Steve can also be an asshole in this too! It’s not gonna get “fluffy” probably ever I’m not really into fluff I like angst. Billy and Steve will probably frustrate you as the story continues! 
> 
> In other words I’m nervous about this chapter cause this is the one that really gets the story going!

"If you don't get your lazy, good for nothing ass out of that god damn bathroom in twenty seconds to eat the food that Susan slaved over to feed your ungrateful ass I'm going to knock the damn door down!" Neil screamed and pounded his fists on the fragile wood of the bathroom door. 

Billy groaned and splashed his face with water from the sink to quell the nausea curling in his gut. Max had been down for a week with the damn flu and the little brat had obviously infected him with her nasty bacteria. Billy wiped the water from his face and pushed the door open to face his father who did not look happy. His face was red and Billy was pretty sure if he got any angrier the vein in his neck was going to pop. 

"Sorry sir I was just—

"No excuses sit down and thank Susan for wasting her time making you food," Neil barked and planted a firm, painful hand around the back of Billy's neck clamping down hard causing him to hiss. 

"Thank you Susan," he muttered looking at the table. 

"It's no problem Billy," Susan said and sat a plate of eggs and toast on the table as Max came running in, falling into her seat loudly and immediately stealing the toast from Billy's plate. 

The smell of the eggs hit Billy like a freight train and he had to press his hand to his face to stop from puking all over the table. He could feel Neil watching him from over his newspaper but Billy couldn't make himself care. Neil's fist slammed down on the table causing Billy and Max to jump and Susan to let out a gasp. 

"Is there something wrong with the food son?" 

Billy shook his head no as he started to sweat from the sheer force of holding back the nausea. "No sir." 

"Then eat it," Neil said and sat his paper down. 

Billy gulped and looked at his father with pleading eyes. "I think I have the flu I can't—I'm going to puke if I eat it." 

Neil's face grew colder. "We don't waste food in this house Billy eat the damn eggs that's an order, do you hear me?" 

Max fidgeted in her seat. "I can eat them." 

Neil's gaze didn't leave Billy's face. "You don't always have to try and get him out of trouble Maxine, Billy's a man he needs to learn to take care of himself. Now eat the eggs before I get angry." 

Billy flinched as Neil's palm flew out and smacked his mug of coffee off of the table. "NOW!" 

At this point Susan had ushered Max up to get ready to leave and left the room. The redhead shot Billy a worried look from the doorway and Billy tried to avoid her gaze as he picked up his fork and forced the eggs down. When he was done he flew out of the kitchen not caring that Neil was calling after him to clean up the floor. He grabbed his keys and jacket and practically ran to the Camaro where Max was already sat in the passenger seat. He peeled out of the driveway and sped down the street only pulling over when he was far enough that he knew his dad wouldn't be able to catch up quickly. He threw his door open violently and heaved the eggs out onto the side of the street pathetically. 

"Are you okay?" Max asked quietly, he could hear the pity in her voice as she leaned over to his side of the car. 

"You gave me the flu fuckin' brat," he muttered and wiped his mouth. 

"I haven't had the flu for two weeks!" Max muttered exasperated and sat back in her seat. Her empathy of the situation having left as quickly as it came. 

Billy sat back down in the Camaro heavily and laid his head back against the seat. He could feel Max's gaze on him as he closed the door and started to drive again. He ignored her in favor of watching the road and hoping he could avoid Tommy and Mark for the day. Max cleared her throat loudly twice signaling that she was wanting his attention and Billy groaned. 

"What?" 

"Can you drop me off at the arcade after school, I never ask you to and I know I could ride my skate board but the car is faster," she mumbled and looked at him pleadingly. 

Billy hummed. "Whatever." 

"Steve is meeting us at the arcade to take the guys to the Byers for dinner afterwards I already asked mom and she said you'd take me," she added causing Billy to stiffen. He hadn't seen Harrington since March and it was already nearing the end of May. The guy had completely bailed on basketball in favor, according to Tommy, of improving his grades. Billy was pretty sure that he was just avoiding him, but whatever. 

"I'm not going to some stupid dinner with your weirdo friends," Billy told her with a grimace. 

"Well you weren't invited so whatever, I just need you to drop me off, you can sit and freeze in the car," she muttered as they pulled up to the middle school. He stopped the car and Max jumped out quickly before turning around. 

"You smell like puke," she said with a smirk before slamming the door. 

Billy checked his own breath and grimaced. "Nasty." 

He climbed out of the car and locked eyes with Harrington from across the parking lot for the first time in a long time. The brunet held his gaze for a few seconds before turning back to Princess Wheeler and Byers. It was going to be a long day. 

••••

The day flew and before he knew it he was pulling out of the arcade parking lot with Max in the passenger seat going on and on about the dinner at the Byers. Billy wasn't looking forward to it at all. Sure he'd probably sit in the car but even from the car he'd be able to see Steve and he really didn't want to deal with the other boy all night. When they pulled into the Byers' dark driveway Max turned in her seat to look at him.

"If you come in don't be an asshole to Steve like the last time you were here I still know how to use a bat," she said with a serious glint in her eyes. 

Billy didn't doubt her for a second. He nodded and smirked a little, she had no idea what had occurred between him and Hawkins resident King and it was amusing to think that she thought they were still hung up on that night. Billy watched her open the door and climb out just as Steve's Beemer pulled in next to the Camaro. Billy lit up a cigarette and tried to causally watch as three rambunctious preteens jumped out of Steve's car all gangly limbs and knocker knees. Steve looked exasperated at their high energy levels as he tried to get them to walk and not run. Billy was amused at the sight of the infamous mommy Steve, hands on his hips and a furrow in his brows. A knock on the window had him jumping and almost dropping his cigarette on his lap. Steve was there looking at him waiting for the window to be rolled down. Billy complied and blew his smoke out at the brunet. 

"Long time no see amigo," he said, signature smirk painting his lips. 

Steve rolled his eyes, "Just ya know, getting detached and shit." 

"What do you want?" Billy asked looking away from Steve's big brown eyes and instead focusing on the swing that was moving in the breeze on the Byers' porch. 

Steve shifted and placed his hands on the Camaro. "Aren't you going to like come in? To eat?" 

Billy flicked the ash off of the end of his cigarette and looked back at Steve. "Thought we weren't going to hangout anymore?" 

Steve shrugged. "We can sit at separate sides of the table, I won't even ask you to pass the potatoes, scouts honor." 

Billy chuckled and pushed the door open causing Steve to step back. "Well with an offer like that, hows a girl supposed to resist." 

Both boys walked into the house and Billy felt awkward upon seeing Joyce and the chief of police standing in the kitchen together. The last time he had seen either person it had not ended on good terms. The chief definitely didn't like him and Joyce always gave him that disappointed mom look that made him squirm. They stopped talking as soon as they saw them and the chief stood up straighter and looked from Steve to Billy a few times. 

"Hargrove are you giving Steve any trouble?" Chief asked, arms crossed in front of his chest making him look taller and broader than he already was. 

"No sir," Billy answered and cleared his throat awkwardly. 

Steve noticed the tension in the room and laughed. "Hop relax, he's here for dinner like everyone else, we're good now." 

The chief raised his eyebrows at Steve's statement and grunted in response. Joyce smiled warmly at both boys. 

"The more the merrier, Billy do you know how to put together mashed potatoes? Steve here is gonna help me with peeling some carrots," she said and gestured for him to come help. 

"Yes m'am," Billy nodded and entered the kitchen awkwardly with Steve at his heels. 

They worked silently save for a few questions from Joyce here and there. Steve kept stealing glances and rubbing up against him on 'accident' and Billy couldn't help but smile every time he did it. Joyce was oblivious to their subtle flirting, which Billy was thankful for. As Billy put the butter into the potatoes and heard children's laughter coming from the living room, he couldn't help but feel a little at home at the Byers'. The house was warm and cozy and Joyce had an energy that only moms did and he hadn't been around it in a long time. He could tell that Steve felt the same, if his relaxed shoulders and gentle smile at Joyce was anything to go by. It wasn't like Billy knew a whole lot about Steve or his family and Steve didn't know much about Billy either, but he knew that the other boy did have a strained relationship with his parents. 

"Where'd you learn to cook Billy?" Joyce asked as he mashed the potatoes until they were smooth. 

He looked up startled at her voice before looking back down. "My mom." 

Steve looked up at the confession interested in the topic. Billy had never willingly talked about his mom before so Steve was still in the dark about the whole topic. 

"Does she still live in California?" Joyce asked and Steve wasn't sure if she could see the tense line of Billy's back or the way his knuckles were turning white around the potato masher. 

"I Uh—I don't know actually, she um," he cleared his voice. "She left when I was nine so I haven't really talked to her since." 

Joyce stilled in her movements setting the chicken breast down on a platter. "I'm sorry to hear that honey." 

Billy just nodded and stepped away from the stove and his finished mashed potatoes. He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and excused himself to the porch. Steve didn't follow, he knew that Billy would probably just tell him to go away and he also knew that the other boy wouldn't want everyone in the house to think that they had gotten closer. Instead, he just turned back to the carrots he was stirring on the stove and fought the urge to follow him out. 

Once the meal was plated and sat on the table Steve decided it would probably be safe to get Billy from the porch for dinner. Steve stepped outside and froze when he saw Billy sitting on the step with his arms wrapped around his knees and his red eyes staring off into the forest. He had never seen Billy actually cry before and it was almost shocking to see. Billy didn't even try to hide it which was also bizarre to Steve. 

"Uh hey dinners ready," he said and cleared his throat. Smooth Harrington, no 'are you okay?' 'Do you wanna talk about it?'

Billy nodded and wiped his nose on his jean jacket sleeve. Before he pushed up and stood in front of Steve. "Stop looking at me like that." 

Steve furrowed his brows. "Like what?" 

"Like you feel bad for me, poor Billy's mommy left him and now he's with his mean dad," Billy sneered, any trace of openness on his face disappearing and being replaced with a scowl. 

"My parents suck too," Steve said and immediately knew by Billy's posture that it was not the right thing to say. 

The other boy laughed humorlessly before narrowing his eyes. "Oh yeah? Rich boy King Steve who gets everything he wants has sucky parents cause they leave him at home? Please Harrington you have no damn idea how perfect your fucking life is," he rolled his eyes. 

Steve frowned. "I don't get why every time I try to be a good guy you twist everything I say and turn me into the bad guy! What, just cause daddy hits you and mommy left, you're the only person in the whole fucking world who has problems? Fuck off Hargrove." 

"You know what fuck you!" Billy yelled and postured up to Steve like he was looking for a fight. 

"Just hit me Billy, you know you fucking want to, be just like Neil man we both know that's exactly how you're going to turn out," Steve said cruelly and pushed his chest against Billy's. 

Steve knew he had went to far but at this point having all of Billy’s attention on him, his passionate eyes on Steve’s burning with fury, was worth it. Whether it was good attention or bad, it was attention none the less, and anything beat Billy avoiding him like the plague. 

Billy, however was pretty shocked at how fast them being civil turned to them screaming at each other. Maybe he was being a little sensitive but that didn’t matter to him anymore. They hadn't gotten into a physical fight since the beginning of December and Billy wanted to hit him so bad. He couldn't believe that Steve had used his dad beating him against him. He couldn't even believe that he had used Steve's parents against the other boy either. Steve was still goading him into hitting him when the Chief stepped outside and in between them. 

"Okay that's enough Steve get your ass inside and Hargrove stay put," he boomed loudly as he pushed at Steve's chest. 

Steve kept his glare on Billy as he went inside and Billy lowered his gaze to the ground. The chief put his hands on his shoulders and Billy shrugged him off with a growl. 

"Don't touch me," he muttered and stepped away from the large man. 

"Look kid, we don't do this shit here, no hitting or screaming," Chief said and Billy clenched his jaw. 

"He started it," he mumbled angrily and the chief raised a brow at him. 

"Whatever, look I get you guys all care about Harrington and couldn't give two shits about me so I don't even know why I'm here," Billy said and embarrassingly felt his eyes water. 

"I'm going to leave so enjoy your night sir," Billy said and felt the chiefs eyes on his back as he walked towards the Camaro. 

"Kid wait—

"Have a good night." 

The squeal of tires and a cloud of dust was all there was before Billy Hargrove was gone. 

••••

Billy woke up the next morning feeling like shit. He felt guilty over his and Harrington's fight the night before. His head ached like he had drank a bottle of whisky which he hadn't, and the nausea was back full force. He wanted to lay in bed all day but he knew he couldn't, Neil and Susan were already up and they'd expect him to be too. A pounding on his door caused him to tense up before hopping out of bed and opening the door. Max stood on the other side and pushed her way into his room. He instinctively wanted to push her out on her ass but they had been speaking more lately and he didn't actually want to ruin it. 

"What did you do to Steve?" She demanded as she flicked her red hair behind her ear and folded her arms in front of her chest. 

Billy scoffed. "Just told him the truth that's all." 

Max looked unimpressed. "You ruin everything good that happens to you, you know that right? Steve is good Billy he's nice and he takes care of people, he could have been your friend too." 

Billy fell back on his bed. "You think I don't know that? But I'm leaving Max, in another month I'll be gone, hell maybe less than a month." 

Max huffed and looked almost disappointed. Billy just watched her silently. He could never tell if the kid hated him, or secretly liked him being around. At this point he figured he’d never know, neither of them were good at words. 

"Look, I'm not leaving you or anything I just can't stay here Max, not anymore," he told her, sitting up on the bed as his nausea increased. 

Max's forehead wrinkled in concern and she stepped towards him to put a palm to his forehead. He leaned into the touch on accident. 

"You're clammy and all sweaty, you don't look good," she mumbled. 

"It's the flu I already told you," he responded and swatted her hand away when it lingered just a little too long. 

"You don't have a fever like I did, and you don't sound stuffy," she pointed out. 

Billy shifted awkwardly. "Well maybe it's a different kind of flu." 

Max looked suspicious. "Billy you can talk to me you know? I won't tell anyone."

"What's that supposed to mean? Talk to you about what Maxine?" Billy asked and stood to pull on jeans. 

"In—in health we learned about boys who can—who are carriers ya know and maybe—

"Finish that sentence and your ass is grass," he froze and as he buttoned up his pants which seemed a tad snugger but not enough to worry about. 

"Billy you've been sick for a week! Yesterday you threw up on the side of the road and—and Steve said you were crying yesterday you never cry!" Max said much too loudly for Billy's liking. He pressed a palm to her mouth and gave her the most serious look he could conjure. 

"If Neil heard what you're implying right now he would actually kill me Max, for real he would kill me," he said and released his hand to press it to his messy curls. 

Max watched as he began to pace while biting his thumbnail. "I mean do you use condoms?"

Billy's eyes flew to hers and his cheeks reddened. "I am not about to talk to a little girl about condoms. It’s none of your business." 

Max rolled her eyes. "Well it looks like this little girl is the only person wanting to help you so answer the fucking question William." 

They always used condoms, always. He definitely used them both times with Steve. Well, except for the last time in late February. They were drunk but Steve pulled out and everyone always said that pulling out was effective. That’s what all his friends in California always said at least. Then again, looking back they were all pretty stupid. 

"Yeah, I mean except once but he—he pulled out," he said face flaming at telling his little sister about his sex life. 

Max groaned and pressed her palms to her forehead before trying to compose herself. "Okay here's what we're going to do, you're going to get your keys and I'm telling Neil that I want you to take me to the arcade" she paused and tossed Billy his jacket and wallet. 

"Then you're going to take us to Melvald's and I'll get you a test," she nodded to herself, approving of her own plan. 

"No way! I'm not letting my little sister get me a—a test Maxine! Anyone could see," he muttered and continued to bite on his nails nervously. 

"Joyce works there and she won't say anything I swear! I'll tell her a high schooler gave me cash to get them one, she'll never know!" 

Billy nodded. It could work, it would have to work. 

"Okay fine lets go." 

“I can’t believe you just called me your little sister, you must actually like me,” Max smirked triumphantly. 

“Whatever, slip of the tongue.” 

••••

Billy pulled in front of Melvald's on main and turned to face Max. The red head looked just as nervous as he felt and her hands were twitching where they were clutching the ten bucks that Billy gave her. 

"Where do I take it?" He asked her, hilarious that he was now actually seeking his younger sisters advice. 

Max bit her lip. "Um, Neil and my mom are going to dinner a couple cities over so the house should be empty." 

Billy nodded and watched as Max got out of the car and practically ran into the store. His fingers tapped the steering wheel nervously as he waited for her to reappear. The test would be negative, he knew it and then he could move on and get the fuck out of Hawkins. The test being positive was not an option. Billy decided to just focus on the task at hand which was obtaining the test and then taking it, everything else could wait it's turn. 

Max reappeared and held up a paper bag victoriously as she swung open the passenger door and hopped in. "Got it, mission accomplished." 

"Now what?" Billy asked trying to avoid even looking at the bag knowing what it held inside.

"Now we take the test." 

When they got home Max immediately ran to Billy's bathroom and hopped up on the counter. She pulled the test out and looked at the box before ripping open the package and pulling out the instructions. Billy stood awkwardly in the doorway as he watched her look over how to take the test. She pulled out a weird ass test kit that honestly looked like a chemistry set, Billy was so out of his league on this.

"Okay so you pee obviously and then we see if the colors change, blue you're knocked up and clear you're not, easy enough right?" She asked and looked up at Billy. She looked eager to help and Billy figured she saw the whole ordeal as an exciting way to bond. 

"Yeah okay," he nodded and signaled for her to leave the room. 

"The guys wanted me to hang out today but I'll tell them I can't and we can hang out if you want," she said as she stepped out the door and he shut it. 

The offer was nice and Billy wasn't sure why, but he agreed to hanging out. Months earlier the girl was threatening him with a bat to the dick and now she was giving him support and advice. What life was he living?

Billy quickly did his business and the little chemistry experiment. He'd have to wait a whole twenty minutes for the results so he opened the door to Max anxiously pacing around his room. 

"Twenty minutes is gonna be a life time," she muttered and sat down on his bed. 

Billy agreed and went to sit next to her. His kind felt blank and he wasn't sure how he'd react if the result was positive. What the hell was he going to do? 

"Billy don't get mad at me for asking but who's—

"Nope not gonna answer that, no way Maxine don't even ask." 

Max shut her mouth with an indignant sound. "But we're partners in this Billy shouldn't I know?" 

Billy shook his head. "No Max you shouldn't, cause if the test is positive Neil is going to kill me, and I'm not gonna get the—other person involved and killed too." 

Max stood up. "You're not going to tell the father??" 

"No way! If Neil doesn't kill me and that's a big if Max, he's going to force me to go to the clinic okay so there's no point," Billy told her with wide eyes. 

"You could run away!" Max told him hopefully. 

Billy weighed the option. If he got out of Hawkins his dad wouldn't be able to find him, therefore wouldn't kill him. He wouldn't be forced into an abortion and he wouldn't have to tell Harrington about the whole thing. He'd never have to come back to Hawkins. Then there was the unspoken subject. The actual baby. The thought made Billy shiver uncomfortably. If he ran away he'd have a baby, all to himself expecting him to care for and love it. Was he capable of it? Harrington sure didn't think so, and maybe he was right maybe he would become his father. He could always put the baby up for adoption if there was even a baby to worry about. Give it opportunities that he himself never got. Parents that he, himself had never experienced. 

"I don't know Max, I have no idea what I'm going to do," he whispered and fell back on the bed closing his eyes. 

"I can help, we can runaway together, you could tell the other dad and run away together," she told him eagerly. He looked over at the thirteen year old and couldn't help but smile at her. 

"Thanks Max but you need to be here with your friends, and the other—dad he has a life here too and things he wants to do." 

“You should be able to do what you want too,” Max muttered. 

He sat up and walked to the bathroom feeling shaky on his feet. The results should be pretty clear at this point and the idea of confirming his fate made him feel like he was walking the plank. The liquid was a bright, burning blue and Billy felt like his world was falling apart. A lump formed in his chest and he wasn't sure if he wanted to cry or break something. Max was behind him and as soon as she saw the results her small arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him into a hug. Billy wasn't used to hugs and awkwardly let his hands come up to her shoulders and squeeze. 

"Okay, okay, don't worry everything's gonna be fine we'll come up with a plan Billy."

"You're so damn naive," Billy muttered and gave her one last squeeze before stepping back. 

His head felt fuzzy and disoriented but he knew that he had to get rid of the evidence one way or another. He went to the bathroom and gathered up the test and the box it came in and shoved it in the trash. He knew that he couldn't just leave it in his bathroom and expect no one to see it so he gathered up the trash bag, tied it off and carried it to the hall. 

"Where are you gonna put it?" Max asked, trailing behind him. 

"The Rogers' next door, tomorrow is trash day so I can just stuff it in theirs and they won't have a clue," he told her as he left the hall and headed towards the front door. 

He dumped the bag in the Rogers' trash and wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs before letting out a deep breath. He was so dead. 

"Look, we can hang on the couch, make some food and pretend that everything's fine for the day, okay?" Max asked him, worry creasing her brow. 

Billy wanted to scream that he couldn't just pretend that everything was okay, but Max was just a kid, a pretty damn naive one at that. 

"Okay, yeah, but I get the remote." 

••••

After watching crappy television all day and sharing a greasy pizza, Billy almost felt a little better. That is, until Neil and Susan walked in. They both looked a little shocked to see Billy and Max laying on the couch together, Max's feet on Billy's lap. Susan gave them a warm smile and ran her fingers against both of their heads as she walked passed them to drop her purse on the table. Neil looked at them both and Billy returned his gaze. His dad nodded at him approvingly and walked to the back of the house. Billy let out a breath at the fact that his dad, in his own way actually looked sort of proud of him for getting along with Max for once. Billy knew he couldn't get used to the feeling, he knew it wouldn't last but he couldn't help but let some of the tension out of his shoulders. Nothing was worse than acting like a kicked puppy who always ran back to their owner who had kicked them, but Billy would take any positive emotion from his dad at this point and run with it. 

Neil came walking back in and to Billy's surprise handed him a twenty dollar bill. "Why don't you go fill up your tank?" 

Billy looked at the money and then his dad. Neil sighed and wagged the bill at him. "If you don't want it then—

Billy took it and Neil rolled his eyes at his eagerness. "Don't be out past 1, hear me?" 

"Yes sir, thanks—dad," Billy gave him a nod of the head and pocketed the cash before hopping off the couch and practically running to get his keys and jacket. 

"Can I go?" He could hear Max ask from his bedroom. 

"No honey, Billy deserves some alone time sometimes," Susan told her and Billy wasn't sure if he was in some weird parallel universe or dreaming. 

Was hanging out with Max really the golden ticket to them not treating him like trash? He knew it wouldn't last long with his current predicament but he figured he could milk it for as long as he could. He grabbed his jacket and almost ran out the door. 

He got behind the wheel of the Camaro and immediately his mind started buzzing. He was knocked up, the past day hadn't been some fever dream at all. He found himself driving down the street with the radio turned off, which was off for him but he felt off in general. He had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. California was now, it seemed like, a far off dream rather than the close reality it was becoming. 

He found himself turning into Steve's neighbourhood and looking for his large house. Was it a good idea to come see him? Billy wasn't sure but he had no one else to talk about it to besides his thirteen year old sister. Plus Steve did have some skin in the game here. He knew that he had told Max that he wasn't going to tell the father but Billy wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle all of this on his own. What if his dad found out and made him get rid of it? Would telling Steve just hurt him in the long run? Billy didn't have any answers so he pulled into Steve's drive way and turned his engine off. There wasn’t any other cars in the drive way so Billy figured he’d be good to drop in. 

Steve probably wouldn't be excited to see him, especially after what happened the last time they had seen each other. Billy took a deep breath and got out of the Camaro. He walked to the door slowly and tapped his knuckles a few times. Billy had the severe itch to smoke but he was out and he figured smoking while knocked up didn't seem like a great idea. Billy's eyes trailed down to an ugly ass flower pot that still had his cigarette ash on it from months ago. Seemed like Steve's house wasn't used that often, if ever by his parents, this Billy knew but it was insane to see that the flower most likely hadn't been watered for months. 

The door opened pulling Billy out of his thoughts. His eyes snapped up to a man who was most likely in his early fifties with brown hair gelled back. His blue eyes didn't match Steve's but his jaw and nose did. Billy wanted to curse himself out for showing up while Steve's parents were home. Shit the people were never there and of course Billy had to choose the one night that they were. He stepped back to check the drive way and there was no car there just like he thought when he’d pulled in. 

The man at the door, Steve's dad, cleared his throat. "My wife took the car to the store, can I help you son?" 

Billy coughed and resisted the urge to run back to his car and drive all the way to California. 

"Uh...is Steve here?" Billy asked trying not to look scared shitless of the man in front of him. 

Steve's dad cleared his throat and looked Billy up and down. Billy once again cursed at himself for wearing his jeans that had holes in the knees and his boots. He probably looked like a street rat to the man in front of him wearing fucking Dockers and a sweater. 

"Steven is inside with his friends, you can come in if you'd like," The man said and stepped aside for Billy to enter. 

"Oh—

"Dad is that the pizz—Billy? What are you doing here?" Steve asked, brown eyes wide as ever. 

Billy looked between Steve's dad and Steve and shrugged. "Just in the neighbourhood." 

Steve's dad gave them both a lingering glance before disappearing into another room. Steve came closer and gave Billy an impatient look.

"Johnathon and Nancy are here—and Jess so what do you want?" 

Billy bit down on his tongue. "So you're fucking Jess now huh?" 

So not what he meant to say. 

Steve rolled his eyes. "Look man who I fu—see is none of your business remember?" 

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Billy muttered. 

"Your dads kinda hot, think he'd be up for—

"Ew shut up," Steve interrupted him and pushed at his shoulder. 

"Steven invite your friend in or shut the damn door! You're causing a draft," Steve's dad yelled from the other room. 

Steve looked at Billy and then sighed in defeat. "Fine come in." 

Billy wasn't sure if he really wanted to, or if it would be a good idea seeing as Steve had people over—his girlfriend, and his parents. Against his better judgement he stepped inside. After toeing off his boots Billy followed Steve into the living room where Wheeler, Byers, and Jess were sitting. Wheelers eyes got all big when she spotted Billy and he couldn't help but snicker at the way her frail little hands gripped Jonathan's forearm. 

"Uh...Billy is gonna hang out with us for awhile," Steve said and tossed a thumb behind his back at Billy. 

Jess looked at him like she remembered him, but hopefully not what happened at the party. She ended up giving him a smile and gesturing for Steve to sit down next to her again. Billy perched himself on the edge of the couch and hoped he'd get some time alone with Steve at some point. 

"What's he doing here?" Nancy asked and Billy shot her a smile. 

"Relax princess I'm not here to hurt your little baby Harrington here," he muttered and Nancy rolled her eyes dramatically. 

They all sat in awkward silence until the doorbell went off and Steve disappeared to grab what Billy assumed was the pizza. He returned, his father trailing after him and sat the box down on the coffee table. Billy could feel Mr. Harrington watching him, probably wondering when his son started hanging out with street kids. 

"Who are your parents uh...

"Billy," Billy supplied and shifted awkwardly. 

"Who are your parents Billy?" 

"Neil Hargrove," Billy said and looked down at his feet. 

"Ah I know him, he repaired my car a few months ago," Mr. Harrington said and Billy could tell that the man wasn't impressed. 

"So Nancy, I heard you got an internship with the paper for the summer," Mr. Harrington addressed Nancy and then gave Steve a look of disappointment. 

"I did, Jonathon did as well actually," she responded. 

"Well I think it's great how proactive you two are being." 

"What about you Billy? College? Internship coming up?" Mr. Harrington asked looking like he already knew the answer. 

Billy cleared his throat. "Uh no to both." 

Steve gave him an apologetic look but Billy shrugged it off. 

"Well the world always needs people joining the workforce," Mr. Harrington said and looked over at Steve. "Steven here is going to work for me." 

Steve rolled his eyes. "Dad can we not talk about this right now?" 

"Your mother just pulled in why don't you help me carry the grocery's in," Mr. Harrington said and Billy could tell there was a hidden message in his words.

Steve stood and followed his father out of the room with a sigh. The room became awkwardly quiet as Nancy and Johnathon sat and stared at him and Jess picked at her nails. 

"What are you even doing here?" Nancy finally asked.

"I needed to talk to Harrington not like it's any of your business Princess," he told her and gave her a smirk he knew would get her panties in a twist. 

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I think you said enough at dinner that night don't you?" 

"I'm going to the bathroom to take a piss, maybe when I come back you won't be so fucking prickly hmm?" He said and stood up. 

He made his way passed the kitchen. He could hear voices from inside and he stopped to listen. Obviously Steve's dad was mad over something. 

"Look Steven, I met that kids father and they aren't...good people," he said and Billy could hear Steve groan. 

"Dad relax he's barely my friend Jesus, I didn't invite him or anything," Steve replied and Billy hated to admit that it stung. 

"I've heard things about that boy, unsavory things Steven, birds of a feather and all," Mr. Harrington muttered. 

Billy clenched his jaw. "We're not friends dad he's probably only here cause he doesn't have any other friends and his dad is an asshole." 

That was all Billy could take. He wanted to storm in and punch Steve in the face but he knew that Steve's wonder bread family would call the police on him and then his dad would question why he was at Steve Harrington's house in the first place. He gritted his teeth and walked into the room. Both men turned to look at him with a hint of shame on their faces for getting caught. 

"Look, I gotta get back to my trash family, so nice seeing you Steve," Billy said and Mr. Harrington sighed. 

"I'm sorry for speaking about you like this but, Steven has a future you see? He's not going to end up working at a gas station and if he socializes with people that are—

"Below him, got it I'll just let myself out," Billy said and shot Steve a wicked smile. 

"Have a great life Steve." 

With that he was out the door faster than he thought was possible, avoiding the looks of everyone in the living room. As he was trying to use his keys to open the drivers door he could hear foot steps rushing towards him. 

"Wait!" 

"Fuck off Steve seriously, I'm not in the fuckin' mood," Billy said and cursed as he dropped his keys and had to scramble to pick them up. 

His eyes were starting to blur and he hated himself for it. He wasn't sure if he had ever been so embarrassed in his life. Maybe when Mark told everyone they had fucked. In reality Billy had let him go down on him and finger him but the loser passed out before they even fucked. He figured that lying for Mark would make Steve jealous. He wasn't sure why he wanted to make him jealous, seeing as he pushed him away every time it worked but he knew deep down that no one would actually want to deal with him. He liked the desire he'd see in guys eyes when they were jealous. But he knew that fire would die as soon as they actually got him. So, the only solution was to not stop playing hard to get, never get caught. Hurt them before they could hurt him. Guess his game finally caught up with him. 

Steve knelt down to pick up his keys and Billy avoided looking into his puppy dog eyes. He was not going to feel bad for a guy who was shit talking him minutes earlier with his father. 

"Look I get how you feel just let me go man, must have been exotic for you to be able to say you fucked me though right? You and Mark share details?" Billy asked as he snatched his keys out of Steve's hands. 

"What? No! I would never do that! I was just telling my dad what he wanted to hear! You don't understand what he's like!" Steve yelled and pushed Billy's door shut as the other boy opened it. 

"Get your hands off my fuckin car," Billy growled. 

Steve's hand lifted immediately. 

"Everyone said you were an asshole when I moved here but I didn't really believe them." 

"I'm not! I—mean I was! I was but not anymore, don't leave," Steve begged. 

"We haven't seen each other in while anyways so why the hell would you want me to stay? You didn't want me to show up tonight anyways man, just pretend I didn't show up," Billy muttered.

"Why'd you come anyways?" Steve asked and Billy bit down on his tongue. 

"S'not important man just leave it," Billy mumbled and got into his car. Steve frowned and stepped back. 

"You running off to California?" He asked quietly. 

"Probably," he paused, "have a good life." 

With that he slammed the car into reverse and was flying down the street as fast as his car would go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully you liked the chapter, like I said I was pretty nervous to put this one up! Leave your thoughts in the comments if you wanna ❤️💕


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ⚠️This chap contains some domestic abuse and mentions abortion just letting you know 💕

Steve was squashed into a booth with Dustin on one side and Will on the other. The curly haired kid was stuffing fries in his mouth while rambling on and on about some nerdy sci-fi shit that Steve didn't really have much interest in. Will was quietly listening while eating his sandwich and Steve always appreciated how quiet the kid was. Mike was another situation entirely, always ready to argue with Steve and try to assert his own dominance even though Steve was clearly the babysitter in charge. Lucas could be argumentative too but usually against the other boys and not against Steve thankfully. 

Then there was Max. 

Things had been weird with her since the dinner when Billy stormed out. Well, he didn't exactly storm out. Steve did say some shitty things he had to admit. He did feel bad about the whole situation. He had tried to apologize for that night and then the night at his house multiple times but Billy wouldn't answer the phone. The other boy himself said that he was leaving as soon as he could and it was already nearing the end of May. Graduation was around the corner and then Billy would be on the road, all rage and squealing tires all the way to California. 

Maybe Max heard what had happened at Steve's and that's why she was being the way she had been. It wasn't that Max was being bratty or argumentative with Steve, she was just being more quiet than normal and she cancelled on The Party more often than she used to. 

"I can't believe she's late again," Dustin muttered through a mouth full of pop. 

"She told me she had to be with her brother today so he's probably holding her up," Lucas said causing Steve's ears to perk up. 

"What'd he do this time?" Mike asked sounding uninterested. 

"No idea I think he's on house arrest or something," Lucas responded with a shrug. 

Steve was going to ask if he knew anything else but before he knew it he Camaro was pulling into the diners parking lot. Max and Billy talked a bit before Max got out of the car and walked into the diner. She looked tired and stressed out, a look that Steve was sporting often these days. She plopped down at the edge of the table next to Lucas and smiled at him tightly. 

"Did your brother beat the shit out of someone else and that's why he's on house arrest?" Dustin asked immediately causing Max to punch Lucas in the arm. 

"I told you not to tell!" 

"Why not? It's not a big deal!" Lucas responded getting another punch to the arm. 

"Hey! No hitting Max," Steve scolded earning an eye roll from the red head. 

"If Billy knew I told you anything he'd be so mad," Max whispered and swiped a fry from the basket. 

Steve shifted in his seat. "Is something wrong with him?" 

Max turned to look at Steve and shrugged. "No." 

Steve didn't believe her at all but he didn't have much choice. It wasn't like he could interrogate her until she cracked, and he definitely couldn't go to Billy himself. His house was off limits, that Steve knew. He decided to drop it and let the kids hang out for a bit before he had to drop them off. 

When it was time to go, Max as per usual stayed back to wait for Billy who was always late to pick her up. Steve wasn't positive but it felt like the other boy did it to avoid coming into contact with him. The kids piled into his car and he waited with the radio playing lowly to see Billy pull in. He did eventually after ten minutes of waiting and the kids whining about having to sit still in the car. Max jumped in and they talked a bit before they drove off not even looking in Steve's direction. 

••••

Billy wasn't sure what it was that got him caught. He had been careful, he threw the test away in the neighbors garbage. He and Max didn't talk about it unless they were in the car and he had tried to hide his nausea as well as he could. So when his dad blindsided him with news that him and Susan were going to take him and Max in for a check up his heart began beating wildly. His dad had to know, there was no way he didn't. It wasn't like Billy could say no to the man without getting the shit kicked out of him. Plus, he was still only seventeen until August. He knew that if he went to the doctor they would tell his dad and Susan about his situation but there was nothing he could do at this point. His dad had been watching him lately and it was making him increasingly nervous as it got closer to his appointment. Neil hadn't touched him but he was scrutinizing him with his eyes and being an asshole with his words. Billy was afraid of what he'd do when he found out. 

In the waiting room Billy kept fidgeting and Susan kept watching him. She had asked him before they got in the car if there was anything he wanted to tell her and he hadn't answered her at all. Max was just as nervous as he was and when she was called back into the office, Susan went with her leaving Billy alone. He thought about bolting but soon enough his name was being called. Neil stood with him and he wanted to tell him not to come with him but he couldn't. He just followed the doctor into the room and sat down on the examination table. 

"Here for a checkup huh William?" The doctor asked as he looked at his file. 

"It's Billy." 

"Okay Billy well how about you relax and I check some things out," the doctor said and Billy crossed his ankles to stop his feet from shaking. 

Neil hadn't taken his eyes off of him the entire time and Billy wanted to disappear into the floor. The man cleared his throat drawing the doctors attention and Billy could have sworn his heart was going to leap from his chest. 

"I noticed that Billy hasn't renewed his birth control in almost three months," Neil said eyeing his son with a hard glint in his eyes. 

"Well he'll have to take a pregnancy test and an STD panel in order to renew the prescription," the doctor said and Billy gulped. 

"We'll be doing that today then," Neil said causing Billy to let out a shaky breath. 

"I'll let the lab know," the doctor said and left the room for a moment. 

The room was quiet and tense as Billy looked at his dad. "Dad I—

"You know that I work with some boys on the basketball teams dads son?" Neil said interrupting Billy harshly. 

"I heard some interesting things from a kid named Marks dad." 

"Dad—

"No you shut the hell up and let me speak!" Neil screamed causing Billy to flinch hard. 

"Did you or did you not fuck this Mark kid at some damned party?" He asked and Billy looked away. 

In seconds Neils hand was on his jaw gripping it hard enough to leave bruises. "Look at me when I'm speaking to you." 

"Did you or didn't you?" 

Billy held back tears as he shook Neils grip off of him. "I did," he said through gritted teeth. 

Neil let out a cruel bark of laughter. "You just can't keep your damn legs closed no matter where we go huh?"

"You thought I wouldn't notice you sneaking out at night, the puking, your bitchy little attitude? Clive saw Maxine at Melvald's picking up a damn pregnancy test Billy, now who would that be for? Not a thirteen year old that's for sure." 

Billy held his breath and rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans. "It was mine." 

"Damn straight it was," Neil said and sent his palm flying at Billy's cheek causing a red mark to bloom. 

"Grab your coat we're going to a clinic right this instant," Neil muttered in disgust and pulled Billy up by his arm. 

Billy planted his feet on the linoleum. "No." 

"Excuse me?" Neil asked and tightened his grip on Billy's arm. 

"It's too late I can't," Billy said standing his ground and not letting Neil pull him. 

Neils face hardened even more, his cheeks turning red and the vein in his neck bulging like it always did. He let out a breath and gripped Billy's arm tighter than before causing the boy to let out a hiss of pain. 

"I'm going to drive you to this Marks house and you'll tell him exactly what you did," Neil said and physically pulled Billy from the room and out the door where Max and Susan were already waiting. 

"No dad I—we can keep it a secret then no one will know at your work!" He begged and tried to pull away from Neils grip. 

"I'll—I'll give it away I promise just don't make me go there!" Billy yelled and Neil stopped in his tracks. 

"And how exactly does one keep a pregnancy a secret William?" Neil asked as they reached the car. 

"You can send me away! I won't leave the house, I don't know just please, I'll do anything," Billy begged harder. If Mark found out everyone else finding out would be inevitable. 

"You'll go home and you won't leave your room until I'm good and ready to let you do you understand me?" Neil asked finally releasing his grip on Billy's arm. 

"Yes sir," Billy nodded.

At this point Max and Susan had caught up to them and Max had tears running down her pale cheeks. Billy avoided her gaze as he got into the car and stared out the window in silence. He shouldn't have been surprised that his dad found out before he could get out. Things usually did not turn out to be in Billy's favor.

The next month in the Hargrove-Mayfield house was complete and utter hell. Billy was walking on eggshells around his father as per usual but it had never been this bad. The man hadn't hit him since finding out about his condition but he had been giving him the silent treatment and when he wasn't doing that he was ordering him around. Billy was allowed to go to school and come straight home and as soon as school ended it felt like he was on total house arrest. 

He missed Harrington though and wished he could see him again, to tell him that he had been an idiot. Now he was stuck in an impossible position. His dad was expecting him to give up the baby after it would be born around November. Billy wouldn't turn 18 until the end of August and he was contemplating running off but he didn't have any money to do that and raise a baby. He was pretty much screwed. Then there was the fact that during the middle of June Billy had woken up to what appeared to be a small curve low on his abdomen. The sight made him cry and crawl back into his bed for a few hours before Neil came pounding on his door. Now the bump was undeniable and he felt tense every time he saw Neil's eyes on it. 

Billy wasn't sure how he felt about the whole situation. A baby was never something he really wanted or saw himself having. Now it was something that was happening quickly and his body was starting to show it. He didn't feel necessarily attached to it but he didn't want to hurt it either. It was his and it was nice knowing that it needed him to survive and therefore must love him a little bit, if unborn babies were capable of such a thing. A book that Max had stolen from the library said that the baby was around 6 inches at 20 weeks and it's lungs were developing. Billy felt proud that he had managed to carry it long enough for it grow lungs, he had figured he would've fucked up by now. The baby was kicking now too and Billy wasn't sure if he liked the feeling or not. Max did, he wasn't super keen on having her hands on him but the beaming smile she gave when the baby kicked her palm was enough to let her keep doing it. The baby was active at night exclusively after dinner and would keep him up for hours wishing it would fall asleep. He would hum his moms old favorite songs hoping it would calm the baby. It did sometimes and other times it would kick harder. 

"Billy! I'm going to the arcade I'll be back later okay? Do you need anything?" Max asked holding her skate board under her arm as she leaned into his door way. 

Billy had headphones pressed to his belly and his Walkman playing music. It apparently made the baby smarter but he wasn't sure if it mattered what type of music he listened to. The baby seemed to like Led Zeppelin as much as he did. He waved her off and flipped to the next page in his magazine. 

"I'm good squirt," he told her and stretched his feet out. 

"Neil is drinking so maybe you should stay in here okay?" She whispered worriedly. "I can stay with you if you want me too." 

Billy scoffed. "Go hang out with your friends Mad Max, I can handle myself, M'not an invalid." 

"Okay," she nodded and promptly left the room. Billy could hear her footsteps down the hall before she left and then the slam of the door. 

After around an hour of reading his back began to hurt so he pushed himself off of the bed and made his way to the kitchen to grab a snack. His dad caught his eye as he walked passed and Billy prayed that he wouldn't say anything. He didn't and Billy made it to the fridge in piece to pull out some carrot sticks that Susan had bought specially for him. When he turned Neil was standing in the door way with a hard expression on his face. 

"The adoption agency called and they have a family interested, it's closed adoption, you'll meet and sign the paperwork tomorrow morning am I clear?" Neil asked.

Billy tensed up immediately. They hadn't actually spoken about the adoption since the day that Neil had found out and a part of him thought that maybe Neil had forgotten about it or that he was going to let Billy keep the baby and move away when he could. Neil stood up straighter, posturing, and Billy fought his frustrated tears from building in his eyes. 

"Why so soon?" He asked clutching his bag of carrots. 

"Because the sooner you sign that—that thing away the sooner I don't have to think about what a failure my son is," Neil responded. 

Billy felt his cheeks redden and he bit his lip. "I'm only 20 weeks in though, I have a long time to decide." 

"You're not deciding anything Billy, as long as you live under my roof and you eat my food, you don't get a damn say in anything," Neil spit and Billy could smell the liquor on his breath. 

"It's my baby," he said quietly and pressed his palm to the crest of his abdomen. 

"I'm doing the baby a favor Billy, you couldn't be a father! I'm doing the second best thing to putting the poor thing out of its misery." 

"Fuck you, I couldn't be worse than you are, no wonder mom left," Billy regretted his words quickly as Neil came at him with his fist aimed and ready. It caught his cheek and had him flying backwards towards the counter. His back smacked against the corner and he went down, carrots all around the floor and under Neil's boots. 

"Anything else you want to say?" Neil asked as knelt in front of him not caring that Billy had tears on his cheeks. 

"No sir." 

"I didn't fucking think so," Neil told him and backed away.

Billy watched the man stomp out of the room before moving to pick up the carrots that were strewn across the floor. He wiped his face with his hand and pulled himself to his feet. After tossing the carrots he walked back to his room tensely and shut the door. His body was vibrating with nervous energy and anger. Neils words bouncing in his head. As long as you live under my roof and eat my food you don't get a damn say in anything. 

Billy looked around his room and his eyes fell on his duffel bag. He didn't have any money saved since the last time his dad had found his stash and cleaned him out. He knew that leaving at 20 weeks pregnant with no money and no place to go was a stupid risk but he wasn't ready to sign the baby away so soon. He was also afraid that if he stayed in the same house with Neil much longer the man would either kill him or the baby and that sounded a lot worse than living in his car for awhile. With his mind made up Billy picked up the duffel and began stuffing it with things he deemed essential. Once he was finished he pulled the pillow off of his bed and a blanket before grabbing his keys from his dresser. 

He peaked his head out his door and couldn't see his dad near his room. With a deep breath he walked down the hall and to the front door. He pushed it open as gently as he could and stepped outside. Warm mid summer air lapped at his body as he walked down the porch steps and practically flew into the Camaro. He threw the duffel into the back seat along with his blanket and pillow before shoving the key in and starting the engine. He let out a relived breath when he was able to drive away from cherry without seeing Neil in his rear view mirror. 

••••

Billy had been in his car for ten hours when he had noticed that since Neil pushed him the baby hadn't moved. He had abandoned the idea of running away hours earlier and decided to park along a street. 

He was trying not to flip out about the lack of movement, but he had left the book that Max stole under his bed so he had no way of knowing what was normal. The road he was parked on was pretty desolate and dark and normally Billy would feel at home with the darkness, but this time he felt scared. Scared wasn't an emotion that Billy liked to admit to feeling but it was undeniable that this time he was scared. The back seat of the Camaro wasn't comfortable with a baby bump and no matter how hard he tried to he couldn't get the baby to move. He was beginning to feel hungry and hot, the back seats leather sticking to his back as he panted through the July heat. Finally at around midnight Billy got somewhat comfortable and fell asleep only to be awoken not even an hour later. The flashlight beamed into his eyes and caused him to groan and try to shield himself. He sat up when a knock sounded on the glass.

His eyes struggled to adjust to the bright light and when they did he groaned out loud. "Well howdy officer how can I help ya?" 

He gave Chief Hopper a charming smile and hoped the man wouldn't ask too many questions. The chief lowered his flashlight so that it was on the ground instead of blinding him. 

"Billy? What the hell are you doing sleeping in the back of your car on the side of the road?" Chief asked his eyes flickering to the bruise forming on Billy's cheek bone. 

Billy licked his lips nervously and brushed his sweaty hair off of his face. "Ya know just taking a nap, is there a problem officer?" 

"Are you intoxicated Hargrove? Get into a bar fight?" Chief asked and pulled the door to the Camaro open. 

"No I'm not drunk asshole," Billy told him and pushed out of the car. 

"Do you need a hospital? Can your car start?" 

Billy kept his hands in front of his body crossed over his chest as he stood but immediately, probably due to the sticky heat of the car, he felt faint and began to fall backwards. Hopper's hands shot out to steady him and pulled back upwards. 

"Jesus kid, did you give yourself a heat stroke in there? When was the last time you drank water? Ate?" Hopper asked and Billy pushed his hands off of him. 

"I'm fine I don't need you fussing over me like a damn baby, I can take care of myself," Billy muttered aggressively. 

"Can you Hargrove? You're sweaty, your skin is pale, I just heard your stomach growl," Hopper pointed out with a no bullshit look on his face. 

Billy scoffed and opened and closed his mouth trying to figure out what to say. The truth was that he was hungry and desperately thirsty. His back hurt and the baby wasn't moving, he wanted to go to sleep on a soft surface and be far, far away from Neil Hargroves hands and prying eyes. Billy looked up at Hopper and wanted to ask for help for the first time in his life but he wasn't sure if his pride would let him. 

"Listen kid, we don't have to talk about anything you don't want to just get in my car and I'll get you a burger," Hopper said and Billy could tell that Hopper had definitely noticed the swell of his baby bump at this point but thankfully the man wasn't going to bring it up just yet. 

Billy looked back at his car and then back at Hopper. "Okay a burger sounds fine I guess." 

Hopper nodded and opened the passenger side door. Billy got in and looked at the chief mischievously. 

"Look Chief if you just wanted me to get in here so we could fuck—

"Nope, don't finish that sentence—just no." 

••••

Hopper watched with sickened fascination as Billy finished off his second bacon cheeseburger in a row and stuffed chili cheese fries in at the same time, he was sipping a milkshake to wash it all down. The kid looked like he hadn't eaten in days and the bruising on his cheek bone led Hopper to believe that some kind of abuse was involved. Then there was the obvious pregnant belly that the teenager was sporting. He hadn't mentioned it and he wasn't sure if he should, he didn't want Billy to get aggressive and flighty and run off. He'd heard things around the station that the Hargrove boy was a little slutty, Hopper himself hadn't joined in on the gossip but it was kind of a well known thing. Then there was the fact that some high school kid named Mark from the basketball team had been sleeping with the teenager. Hopper knew this because the kids dad was talking to a buddy while Hopper had been at the diner. Apparently the guy felt the need to brag about his kid losing his virginity. The thought made Hop cringe. He felt pretty confident that the state the boy was in was thanks to this Mark bastard. 

"Liking the view," Billy flirted brazenly and Hopper scrunched up his nose. 

"Ya know, underage kids stuffing their mouths with cheese fries aren't really my thing, sorry Hargrove," he muttered and sipped his coffee. 

Billy rolled his eyes. "Look, I don't want to be your little charity case Chief." 

"Good I don't want you to be either," Hopper responded and pushed Billy the rest of his sandwich, the kid had been eying it for ten minutes. Billy grabbed the BLT and went to town on it.

"I know you know that I'm knocked up so just save the judgement for another time I get enough at home okay?" Billy muttered looking away from Hopper and out the window. A slight blush was on his cheeks and his shoulders were slumped like the entire situation had him embarrassed. 

"I'm not judging you Billy," Hopper sighed and Billy huffed. 

"Yeah okay Chief, I know what people say about me, I know I'm an asshole, I beat up Harrington for fucks sake...I don't deserve your sympathy," Billy said and pushed his empty plates away from himself. 

"Besides...it's not—moving anyways so I'm pretty sure I killed it and even if I didn't I hav—I'm going to give it up so I don't need your pity no ones even gonna know and then I'm getting the fuck out of here," Billy said quickly and stood up from the diner booth. 

Before Hopper could say anything Billy was out of the diner. "Shit." 

Hopper threw a few bills down on the table and ran after the distressed teenager who was already walking down the street. 

"Kid! Wait!—Billy stop!" He yelled as he jogged over to Billy and turned him around by his shoulders. 

The teenagers eyes were swimming in tears and he looked more vulnerable than Hopper thought he could ever look. Gone was the hardened exterior and the permanent sneer. In its place was round eyes, quivering lips and insecurity. Billy wiped his eyes roughly with the backs of his hands and swallowed a sob before he stood straighter. 

"Just fuck off I'm not a damn after school special," Billy yelled, but his voice came out weaker than he wanted it to. 

Hopper squeezed his shoulders. "I'm taking you to my place and I can check in on you and the—the baby okay?"

Billy bit down on his lip hard. He wanted to spit in the mans face for pitying him but he knew that he needed someone to check on the baby at least. Swallowing down his pride Billy felt himself nod and let Hopper guide him back to the car. Hopper helped him into the truck and Billy didn't push him away or yell at him for once. He was tired and didn't feel like he had the energy after everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. 

••••

Billy was sat on an old couch in the middle of a dingy cabin. He had noticed that one door to a bedroom had been cracked open and he was pretty sure that he had seen an eye peaking out. Hopper was standing in the kitchen watching him awkwardly as he waited for Hopper to do whatever it was that he was going to do to check on the baby. The older man crossed the room and sat down on the coffee table in front of Billy. He cleared his throat and gestured awkwardly towards Billy's belly. 

"So uh...a baby huh?" He asked and took a swig from a beer bottle that he was grasping hard enough to turn his knuckles white. 

Billy raised his eyebrows. "You're a dang good detective Chief." 

Hopper laughed and scratched at his beard. "So what was—what's the problem? You said you thought you Uh killed it?" 

Billy shifted uncomfortably. "I fell." 

Hopper didn't look like believed that he had just fallen and gestured for him to show the damage. Billy sighed and stood slowly to lift the back of his shirt. He could hear Hoppers breath catch when he saw the damage on his lower back. Billy jumped when he felt fingers press on the bruise and shook the mans hand off. He pulled his shirt back down and fell back onto the couch. Hopper put his hands on his hips and cleared his throat. 

"It wasn't the father was it?" 

Billy blinked up at him in confusion. "What do you mean? My father?" 

"No, the baby's father, did he do this? Your cheek and your back," Hopper clarified with a locked jaw and anger in his eyes. 

"What? No! I fell I already told you," Billy muttered. 

He knew that Hopper still didn't believe him but he was not going to get into details about his father with a cop. He stared down Hopper before standing and trying to make it to the door but Hopper blocked his way. He pushed him back towards the couch and helped him sit back down. 

"Stop trying to run kid I'm just trying to understand," Hopper told him and Billy scoffed. 

"The father didn't do shit to me okay? It's not moving and it usually does so I don't know what I'm supposed to do," Billy said and tried to act nonchalant about it but in reality he really did care. 

"Okay um well my wife would just eat sugar and that usually did it after awhile," Hopper told him and scratched at his beard. 

"I had a milkshake," Billy told him with a roll of his eyes. This man was dense. 

"Well then wait it out a bit I'm sure it's okay, they're pretty padded in there ya know?" Hopper told him and Billy nodded. 

"What time is it?" He asked worriedly. He had been out of the house for hours at this point and it had to be around 1 or 2 am. 

"You have some place to be kid?" Hopper asked and took a seat in front of him again. 

"No—well I have some place to be in the morning, my dad won't be happy if I'm not there," Billy responded quickly. 

Hoppers eyebrows scrunched up. "Well you're gonna sleep here tonight and I'll drop you with your dad in the morning." 

The chiefs voice left no room for argument and as much as Billy wanted to demand that he brought him back to his car he knew he'd be safer with him. Neil was probably fuming at this point seeing as Billy hadn't returned home and Max was probably freaking out as well. The thought of walking back in through the door with his pillow and bag, showing Neil that he had won once again was going to suck, but Billy knew he didn't really have much of a choice. 

Billy eventually settled down on the couch and closed his eyes hoping sleep would come quickly. The house was quiet save for the snoring softly pouring from Hoppers room and the sound of wind rustling the many trees that surrounded the cabin. It was nice and for once Billy felt relaxed enough to not sleep in a tightly curled ball. He spread out on the couch on his back and heaved a sigh as he drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any ideas and thoughts are always welcome in the comments 💕💕 love to hear everyone’s thoughts! I’m excited to post the next chapter so it will be coming soon!


	5. 5.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of shit happens in this chapter! Hope you like it 💕 Mark is only being mentioned like once more lol sorry for everyone who hates Mark, we all do. Good news is that Steve is gonna (badly) attempt (unsuccessfully) to beat his ass in this chapter (read: Steve successfully gets his ass beat)

A feeling in his gut had Billy's eyes popping open the next morning. He could hear Hopper in the kitchen getting ready for his day, pouring coffee and making breakfast. The tapping in his belly had Billy sitting up and looking down at the slight mound with a half smile. 

"So you are okay in there," he muttered quietly feeling almost embarrassed for talking to it. 

"Told ya it'd be fine," Hopper told him from the small kitchen area where he was sipping coffee. 

Billy nodded and stood up. The clock on the wall let him know that had around an hour before Neil was going to go ballistic on him for missing the meeting with the prospective parents. The idea still made Billy's stomach ache but he knew that at the end of the day Neil was actually right. He couldn't afford a baby let alone take care of one, and he absolutely couldn't think of bringing a baby into a house with Neil Hargrove in it. The kid would be better off, they'd get the picket fence, mommy and daddy, a dog, siblings, normal grandparents. This was a good thing he just needed to keep telling himself that. The real guilt always settled heavy and Billy knew that it had to do with Harrington. Sure he deserved to know about the situation but Billy wasn't sure if he could tell him. The situation was embarrassing and it's not like Steve wanted anything to do with him anymore anyways. Plus, having him around would complicate the adoption and Billy knew that it was the best thing right now. He had no other options. With that idea in mind Billy felt prepared to meet the couple the adoption agency was sending over. 

After a few eggs and a piece of toast Hopper and Billy climbed into the police cruiser and headed to cherry lane. The man had told Billy that he would send someone with his car over later in the day so that he wouldn't have to get it himself. Billy was apprehensive about some stranger touching his car but he knew it was the most logical thing to do. It would be a miracle if Neil didn't take his keys immediately anyways so the car wasn't incredibly important at the moment. 

Hopper sent him a worried glance as they pulled up to his house on cherry and Billy opened the door slowly. Hopper cleared his throat causing the teenager to glance back at him. 

"Look kid if you need anything don't hesitate to call me okay? I had a kid—I mean my wife did," he cleared his throat as if the topic was a sore spot. "I can answer some of your questions if you need me to." 

Billy nodded and stepped out of the car. "Thanks..uh.. Chief for everything." 

"It's Hopper, Billy and no problem kid." 

Billy closed the door and took a deep breath before walking up to the door and pushing it open. Neil was already at the table waiting for him and Billy just hoped the man wouldn't hit him before the agency arrived with the new parents. Neil watched him as he stepped into the room and held his breath waiting for the man to speak. 

"William, I'm surprised you showed up, take a seat the parents should be here any minute," Neil said with narrowed eyes. 

"Yes sir," Billy said and took a seat across from his father. 

They sat in tense silence until the door bell rang and Neil sprung up to get it. Before leaving he had shot Billy a warning glance and Billy knew that it meant to keep his mouth shut. He waited a few minutes and soon a couple was walking into the room. The woman had short brown hair and was shaped like an apple with khaki colored pants pulled up past her belly button. It wasn't the most flattering look Billy thought. The man was tall and had a mustache like his fathers which made Billy instantly not like him. 

"You must be Billy it's wonderful to meet you," the woman said and patted Billy on the back. 

"Now let's get down to business here, is the kid a boy or a girl?" The man asked earning a swat to his arm from his wife. 

"Now honey we don't care remember?" 

The man huffed. "Well you know I'd rather have a boy Carol, someone to pass on the family name, take over the business." 

Billy frowned. He didn't want some asshole taking his kid and turning him into some masculine asshole like Neil had done to him. 

"We don't know the gender actually but he has an appointment soon and they might be able to tell then," Neil piped in and Billy ground his teeth together. 

"I didn't want to know—

"Billy if the parents want to know then we will find out won't we?" Neil asked giving Billy a warning look. 

"Yes sir." 

The woman shifted in her seat and pulled out a few documents from her bag. "The agency sent us these documents to go over the whole process and it says that we will need the fathers signature in order for the adoption to be processed." 

Billy could see Neil's jaw clench and he knew that he was screwed. Neil was still under the impression that Mark was the father when Billy knew full well that it wasn't the case at all. They hadn't even had sex and Steve and Billy had but had not used a condom. Mark would tell his dad that they had t had sex, and his dad would tell Neil and then Neil would know that he had lied about the father. Billy could tell Steve and then get the paper signed and turned in without Neils knowledge which could work, besides the whole telling Steve part. 

"That can be arranged," Neil told them happily. 

They all continued to talk about Billy without addressing him for an hour. Neil told them about his pregnancy like the man cared but Billy knew he didn't and just wanted to get rid of the baby as quickly as possible. Billy knew that if he could have it now and hand it over right there at the kitchen table Neil would make him. The parents, Carol and Ed were not Billy's favorite people and he didn't want to imagine giving his baby to the two dim wits but with Neils almost manic grin as they spoke, Billy knew he had no say. 

After Neil led them to the door and watched them drive off he walked back onto the kitchen grabbed his wallet and pointed a finger at Billy's face. 

"Now listen here son, you will not go running off like that again do you hear me? You almost cost us this appointment and if that would have happened," he whistled dramatically and squeezed the back of Billy's neck. 

"Due to all this shit you caused I'm late to work, you know, the thing that pays the bills around here," he muttered and let go of Billy's neck. 

"Don't even think about leaving this house until your next appointment do you understand me?" 

"Yes sir." 

Neil nodded and stomped out of the house leaving Billy alone. He sighed and looked down at his belly sadly. He hoped the baby could some how feel how he felt about the situation, that this wasn't really a choice and it never would be. In the end he knew that the baby wouldn't be able to feel what he was feeling and in ten years it would be hateful and mean towards the idea of its birth parent giving it away like an old shoe. 

Billy stood from the table and made his way to his bedroom hoping a quick shower and a change of clothes could help his mood. He passed by Max's room and noticed that she wasn't home. Susan was at work so she obviously wasn't home either. Max would probably be mad at him for not telling her where he had went but he would worry about that later, for now he just wanted a warm shower and a crew neck sweatshirt. Billy's showers these days were quick and he always made sure to avoid looking in the mirror. It wasn't that he looked bad or anything, he rocked the baby bump pretty well. He just didn't want to get used to it, he didn't want to get used to anything to do with the baby, it would just end with disappointment. 

Once he was out of the shower he dried quickly, put his necklace back on, and a nice cozy crew neck along with some shorts he'd typically work out in. He hadn't been doing much of that lately though. Stepping out of his bedroom he made his way down the stairs and sat down on the couch. He turned on MTV and mindlessly watched music videos until he heard a rumble of a car engine in his drive way. 

He rolled his eyes when he saw that it was just the Chief. At this point it seemed as if the Chief was more needy than Harrington, Billy wasn't even sure how that was possible. The man walked up to the house and knocked twice and Billy sighed before walking over to the door and opening it. He gave the man his signature smile and leaned against the doorway. 

"I don't recall calling 911," he said and raised his eyebrows at the Chief. 

"Don't be smart, I was just checking in," Hopper told him and thrust a bag at him. Billy took it and peeked inside to find a sub and a pack of chips. 

"You'd think you were the one who knocked me up Chief with all the food and shit you've been giving me," Billy muttered and turned to walk into the house. 

Hopper followed and looked around the house, his training always had him looking around suspiciously. Billy fell onto the couch and began eating the sandwich. Hopper scratched his chin and cleared his throat awkwardly. 

"So...how'd it uh... how'd it go this morning with your dad?" He asked as he stepped up to look closer at a picture of Max and who he assumed was her mother. 

Billy grunted. "How do you think it went?" 

Hopper huffed out a laugh and nodded. "Just remember that you can show up anytime you need to kid, at my place I mean," Hopper told him hoping he wasn't coming off as creepy rather than genuine. 

Billy nodded and rolled his eyes with a small smile. "Yeah, yeah dad I know." 

Hopper gave him a playful glare and cleared his throat again. "Okay, well I was just checking in, better get out of here, take care." 

"Mhm, later," Billy said and watched the man leave. 

Seconds after hearing the police cruiser take off the sound of Max's skateboard rolling down the drive could be heard. Before he knew it the red head was running inside with flushed cheeks. 

"Why was Hopper here? Is everything okay?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. 

Billy crumpled up the wrapper the sandwich had been in and tossed it at her head, causing it to bounce off her forehead and land on the ground. She growled dramatically and picked it up, tossing it back at him. 

"He dropped me off food, if you must know," Billy told her and pushed up off of the couch. 

"Oh," she mumbled and watched him walk to the kitchen to fill a glass with water from the tap. 

She leaned against the counter and began tapping it with her finger nails. Billy raised his eyebrows at her and took a gulp of his water. "Is there something you wanted to say?" 

"M'just bummed is all, you're giving up the baby, my only niece or nephew, and now Steve is moving to Chicago," she huffed before giving Billy wide eyes. 

"Who moves to Chicago??" She muttered unhappily. 

Billy sat his water down and tried to process what she was saying. "Why is he moving to Chicago?" 

Max pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "College, I mean how stupid, who needs college anyways." 

Billy rolled his eyes at this. "You just want him to stick around so he can buy you and your little twerp friends shit and take you places in his little rich boy Beamer."

"No! He's cool, like the only cool older person in this stupid town," she said quickly. 

Billy took another sip of water and rolled his eyes at her words. Billy figured that Steve would be jumping state lines soon, based on their conversation months earlier at the party. He wasn't sure if he should be happy for him or mad, or angry at himself. Looking down at his steadily growing bump he figured it might be a bit late to tell Steve about the baby. If he did tell him he was sure that Steve would be pissed at him for not telling him sooner. Was there even a point to telling him seeing as Billy was giving the baby away as soon as it was out? Then there was Steve's parents. Billy had only ever met Mr. Harrington once and that whole encounter made him sure that they would not take their son knocking up the town bad boy very well. He didn't want Steve to be disinherited or something. He also didn't want the other teen to think that he was trying to trap him with a baby, he was giving it away obviously, but Steve might not think that he was serious about the adoption. 

"You're spacing out are you good?" Max asked and Billy shook his head and stood up straighter. 

"I'm good, just gonna take a nap maybe," he told her and sat his nearly empty glass of water on the counter. He could use a good nap after the day he had had. 

••••

"Are you sure?" Neil asked and Billy could see the mans knuckles turning white as he gripped the sides of the chair he was sitting in. 

The doctors eyes darted to Billy and then Neil before clearing their throat. "Yes, Mr. Hargrove I'm sure." 

Billy swallowed hard and looked back up at the ultrasound screen. The doctors finger rose to point at the ultrasound again. "See here? He's definitely a carrier." 

Neil grunted and stood before leaving the room, the door practically banging against the wall causing both the doctor and Billy to jump. Billy let out a breath and watched his baby move around on the screen completely oblivious that the tenseness in the room was all caused due to the babies genitals. The doctor handed Billy a towel to wipe the thick gel off of his stomach. The older man turned the screen off and paused to look at the troubled teenager. 

"Look Billy, if you're in an unsafe situation at home—or if you feel like you don't have a say in what happens to your baby I can help you—

Billy chuckled and sat up, swinging his short clad legs over the edge of the examination table. "Look doc I'm all good, I don't need your help." 

The doctor didn't look completely convinced by Billy's words and Billy wasn't sure if he was either. Neil was pissed and Billy knew that he was going to get an earful in the car on the way. The man would twist the situation and somehow find a way to blame Billy for creating a "defective" baby. Billy knew for a fact that the only reason that his dad dealt with his carrier status was because his mother refused to allow Billy to get the surgery that would "correct" him as a baby. He knew that Neil was going to push for him to sign for the surgery for his own baby. 

"I gotta go Doc, find a new charity case," he winked and left the room letting out a deep breath. 

Neil was leaned against the car when Billy stepped out of the clinic. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was staring down at a pamphlet. Billy approached him cautiously and cleared his throat to let him know that he was there. Neil's eyes lifted to his and the man grunted and opened the car. Billy climbed into the passenger side and buckled up. Neil silently handed him the pamphlet on the surgery and Billy took it. 

"We'll have to schedule an immediate surgery for when it's born, I don't know what the hell the adoptive parents are going to think, they might not even want it anymore," Neil muttered and threw the car into reverse. 

"Maybe they won't care, I don't know if you realize, but I'm a carrier and they want my baby so," Billy said and looked out the window. 

Neil barked out a laugh. "Your mother was the only reason you didn't get that surgery, and in hindsight I should have told the bitch that it wasn't her call, as far as the idiot parents go, they don't care as long as the baby comes out right." 

"Don't call her that," Billy muttered and earned a glare from Neil. 

"She up and left you and you still stand up for her," Neil muttered and rolled his window down to toss out his cigarette. 

"She didn't leave me, she ran from you," Billy said and Neil slammed the breaks causing Billy to fly forward only being stopped by his seat belt digging across his chest. 

"Listen here, I won't stand for your disrespect, I'm fixing this damn situation for you, you ungrateful little bastard," Neil yelled as he pointed a finger in Billy's face. 

"Fixing the situation?" Billy laughed and unbuckled his seat belt. 

"Put that back on and close the damn door," Neil yelled as Billy opened the door. 

"Fuck you dad," Billy muttered and slammed the door to the car. Neil rolled the window down. 

"God dammit Billy get back in the damn car," Neil growled.

"No." 

"You know what fine, walk home I don't care," he muttered and pressed his foot to the gas, tires squealing as he left Billy on the side of the road.

Billy sighed and arched his back out feeling it pop. The sun would be setting in about an hour and the heat was still unbearable. Neil had made Billy get the last available appointment with the OB because he had insisted on being there when they found out the sex of the baby. Billy had been dreading the appointment for days and now that it was over he felt exhausted mentally and uncomfortable with the idea of knowing that he was carrying a son. 

Sweat beaded on his brow as he made his way down the street towards town. He was glad that he had pulled on his jean cutoffs and a large t shirt before he left that morning. His feet hurt in his converse, but boots were just not an option at this point in the season. He looked around hoping that he wasn't getting any unwanted attention, the last thing he needed was for rumors to start. 

By the time he made it to the center of town the sun was setting and he was incredibly thirsty due to the heat. He crossed the street to Melvald's and pushed open the door enjoying the feel of the air conditioning hitting him in the face. Behind the counter he could see Byer's mom helping another customer. He didn't exactly want to see her due to who she was around all the time but he figured that she wasn't much for gossip. He moved towards the refrigerated drinks and opened the door only to feel a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned to see Tommy H. grinning at him. 

"Hey man haven't seen you in forever, Mark told me some interesting things about you two, or I guess that nothing interesting happened," Tommy said with a laugh and then looked down taking in Billy's middle. 

"Oh shit, someone who definitely wasn't Mark got it in," he laughed and looked passed Billy. "Oh hey Mrs. Harrington!" 

Billy froze and hoped that the evil gleam in Tommy's eyes wasn't aimed at him and his situation. His hands gripped his water and watched as Tommy waved to the woman behind Billy's head. The guy was pathetic, didn't he have a girlfriend? Slutty Carol. He truly regretted ever taunting Harrington in front of Tommy that one time in the locker room. 

"Hello Thomas, how's your mother?" Mrs. Harrington asked and Billy decided this was a good time to leave the conversation. Tommy put a hand to his chest and pointed behind him. 

"Wait Billy, this is Mrs. Harrington Steve's mom, I would assume that with your current situation you've met?" Tommy asked and Billy really wished that he could deck the asshole in his acne covered smug face. 

Billy narrowed his eyes and Tommy just gave him a look that screamed see you shouldn't have taunted me before. 

Billy turned slowly and tried to work up a charming smile for Mrs. Harrington but he knew that once she saw his condition, even his most charming smile wouldn't work on her. 

"Hi, nice to meet you Mrs. Harrington." 

The woman was pretty, Billy could see where Steve got it from. She had the same wide, brown eyes that Steve had inherited and a straight brown bob. Her blazer was crisp and ironed and she had a string of pearls around her slender neck. Her eyes were confused for a moment and then they became warm, mothers eyes. 

"Hello Billy, Steve hasn't mentioned you," she told him with a smile. 

Billy could pin point the exact moment that she noticed his bump. Her eyes flitted down and then up in quick succession before widening. Her mouth popped open and then closed before she looked back at Billy's eyes. 

"I—how do you know Steve?" She asked with a gulp. 

Billy wanted to laugh at this prim woman clearly losing her composure but he felt like he wanted to run from the conversation and never look back. 

"Um—

"Steve and Billy were close," Tommy interjected. "When was it? Six months ago? Right Billy?"

Mrs. Harrington dropped her bag of groceries and Billy glared at Tommy. "I uh actually have to go, my dad is expecting me, it was nice meeting you Mrs. Harrington." 

Billy left the water on a shelf and practically ran out of the store. He couldn't believe that he was running instead of kicking the shit out of Tommy but here he was. He was three steps out the door when he heard a woman calling after him. He cursed and turned to see Harrington's mother following him into the parking lot. 

"Wait!" 

"Look Mrs. Harrington I'm really late and—

"Steve is going to college you know, it took his father an entire year to convince him," she told Billy while quite literally clutching her pearls.

Billy closed his mouth and gave a sharp nod. "I know." 

Mrs. Harrington sucked her lips in and then cleared her throat. "So I don't need to ask if this is...his doing then?"

Billy rolled his eyes and pressed his hands to his lower back. He wasn't sure if he should lie and let Harrington stay completely ignorant to the whole situation which honestly would probably be the best option here. Or he could tell the truth and deal with the consequences. It probably wouldn't change much, Steve would probably still run off to Chicago for college and Billy would still have to hand the baby over to that awful couple. Mrs. Harrington's lips were pressed into a hard line and Billy knew that she desperately wanted him to lie to her. 

"No ma'am some other guys problem, tell Steve I said good luck at college." 

With that Billy turned and began walking back down the street. He could hear the woman sigh audibly and then she was behind him again. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude," she called out again. Billy rolled his eyes. 

"Well I think you did a shit job attempting not to be rude," he told her, turning slowly. 

"Look, I'm not going to steal Steve's trust fund or something, or ruin his life, I haven't told him this far in, what the hell makes you think I'm telling him at all?" He asked and raised his eyebrows. 

Her eyes widened. "So it is his then." 

"Obviously lady," Billy muttered, already tired of dealing with Harrington's. 

"Like I said I'm not gold digging, I'm not even keeping it," he said and patted his belly gently.

Mrs. Harrington pulled a cigarette out of a fancy cigarette holder. She put it to her lips and lit it before offering Billy one. He shook his head and she laughed nervously. 

"Oh yeah, you young people are much more careful than people in my generation," she said around her cigarette. "Smoked through my pregnancy, I think he turned out okay." 

Billy watched her thinking she had fully lost her mind. "Look, William, can I call you William?" 

Billy shrugged. She nodded and continued. "I can give you a check, or we can set up a trust for the baby if you would prefer." 

Billy chuckled. "I already told you I'm not keeping the kid, and I don't want your money."

She looked at him skeptically. "So you're just giving it up? Don't you need his signature?" 

"I don't know, I'll figure it out," he said and watched her blow her smoke out. 

She reached into her purse and pulled out a check book making Billy stiffen. She clicked a pen and began making it out. When she was finished she stuffed the check book back into her leather purse and pressed it into Billy's palm. Billy let her and she gave him a stiff smile. 

"Just in case you need it." 

"Yeah, okay..." Billy said and turned to continue walking.

"Thanks for, understanding," Mrs. Harrington said softly. 

Billy rolled his eyes again and kind of wanted to go straight to Steve's house and tell him just to piss off his parents. He knew that wouldn't be right to do so he wouldn't. But if Steve ever found out that he had talked to his mother and she knew about the baby he would never forgive either of them most likely. He would understand too, he probably wouldn't forgive Steve if he hid a kid from him either. He wanted to rip the check into a million tiny pieces but he tucked it into his shorts, just in case. 

••••

Days passed by slowly and then the day came that Max was fluttering around the kitchen with a nervous energy. Billy watched from the table as he ate his second bowl of Cheerios. He cleared his throat and she turned to him with an annoyed look. 

"Why the hell are you pacing, looks like you have ants in your pants," he told her and slurped up his milk. 

Max rolled her eyes and tucked her hair behind her ears. "Steve is leaving for Chicago today and we're throwing him a goodbye party." 

Billy huffed. "You guys are all shoved so far up Harrington's ass." 

"You're just jealous that they wouldn't throw you a party," she muttered. 

Billy glared at her knowing she was right. "Whatever have fun at your little party, I'll be here with heartburn and a sore back." 

"I'll bring you some cake back, maybe even some of Mrs. Wheelers peanut butter cookies, Mike said she was making them so he could bring them." 

Billy cringed at the mention of Mrs. Wheeler. "Yeah okay." 

Max shifted on her feet. "You were invited to come ya know, I just figured with the whole," she motioned to his bump. "Baby being visible, you wouldn't wanna come." 

Billy sighed and patted his abdomen. "Yeah probably not a good idea." 

Seconds later a honk came from outside and Max practically ran to the door. "I'll see ya later! I won't forget the cake promise! Take care of the tater tot!" 

Billy smiled and rolled his eyes fondly. "His head does not look like a potato stop calling him that! You're gonna give him some weird complex." 

•••••

They were having the party at the Byers' as usual. Mrs. Byers had even hung up some streamers and Will had drawn a farewell sign that they had strung up in the living room. Max had already bet ten bucks that it would make Steve get all teary eyed. They were all waiting for him to arrive as Hopper and Mrs. Byers got the food all ready in the kitchen. Max and the rest of the Party were sitting in the living room on the floor playing cards. They all kept glancing at her every now and then. She knew that they all thought that she had been hiding something from them, and it wasn't like they were wrong. She couldn't just tell them though, it wasn't her secret to spill. Besides, none of them liked Billy anyways. 

A car pulling in signaled that Steve had arrived with Jonathon and Nancy. Everyone stood up, pushing the cards to the side preparing to yell surprise. Max looked around the room and felt all warm seeing everyone's excitement to surprise their friend. The door pushed open and in came Steve with Nancy and Jonathon on his heels. 

"Surprise!" They all screamed and Steve's eyes got all wide and flighty before his shoulders relaxed and he gave them all a warm smile. 

"I knew it! You liar! I told you, you guys were planning something!" Steve laughed and hooked his arm around Dustin's curly head and gave his hair a shake. 

"Can't believe you're gonna be a college guy now," Mrs. Byers smiled and crossed the room to hug Steve. 

Steve patted her back. "Yeah well, kinda against my will but I guess it's gonna be cool." 

They all settled in with plates on the couch. Steve felt his best when he was surrounded by his little chosen family. He kind of wished that Billy would have shown up but he figured he wouldn't. Steve got off the couch and wandered towards the kitchen. Inside Max was leaning against the counter while Joyce and Hopper talked. 

Steve didn't want to eavesdrop so he began walking past the room when he heard Billy's name. He paused and stepped closer to the room so he could hear what they were saying. 

"He didn't want to come for obvious reasons," Max was telling Hopper. 

Joyce had an angry mom look on her face. "I just can't believe this Mark kid."

"I told him I'd go over there and have this kid take responsibility, but he refuses to let me," Hopper muttered. 

"Well it's his baby too," Max sighed and picked at the edge of foil that covered a plate she was holding. 

"Kid has too much pride to make this Mark guy help out," Hopper said and Joyce let out a breath. 

"And that dad of his is a real piece of work," she rolled her eyes at the thought of Neil Hargrove. 

Steve felt frozen in place. Billy and Mark? He knew about that but he figured it was just a fling. On top of that did he hear that correctly? Baby? Like as in Billy had a baby? Or was having a baby? What?? 

Steve stepped into the kitchen with raised eyebrows. "I'm going to assume I wasn't supposed to hear that." 

Max's eyes widened and she jumped away from the counter. "You can't tel!" 

Hopper stepped forward as well. "Billy wouldn't be happy if he knew we were talking about him." 

"Okay, yeah but—Billy has a baby? Did I hear that right or am I going crazy right now?" Steve asked clearly panicking. 

"Well he hasn't had it yet but—I guess," Max nodded, "but don't say anything!"

Steve let out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. "With fucking Mark? Are you kidding me?" 

He knew that he wasn't the only person who Billy was fucking and it would have been naive of him to think that. After all, Billy loved to shove it in his face just how many tongues he constantly had wagging. But he let fucking Mark out of all people knock him up, fucking Mark? To top it all off the asshole wasn't even helping Billy out? Steve knew first hand how difficult it could be to get Billy to accept any affection or help but come on, a baby? No way could Billy do that all by himself. 

"Yeah, I said the same thing kid," Hopper huffed. "The guy and his father are total assholes." 

"Well why haven't we confronted this asshole?" Steve asked, standing up taller and feeling his shoulders tense up. 

"Relax there Rocky, we all know you'd probably lose that fight," Max smirked and Steve had never wanted to fight a little girl more. 

"I could absolutely take Mark." 

"No way—

"No one is "taking Mark" anywhere," Hopper said causing the arguing to stop. 

"We can't just let him get away with it!" Steve yelled. 

"Billy isn't keeping the baby anyways, so he figured it'd be easier for him not to be involved," Max told him looking disappointed at the idea. 

Steve sighed. "God Mark is so...gross, why Mark?" 

"Sounds like you're...jealous," Max teased earning a glare from Steve. 

"No way! Just Billy should at least have standards ya know?" Steve replied. 

Everyone went quiet as they all let the whole shitty situation process in their minds. Steve couldn't even imagine Billy with a baby, let alone a baby bump. A small part of his mind wondered if he had that cheesy pregnancy glow right now. He couldn't help but wonder if he had never fucked things up with him, Billy wouldn't have started screwing Mark and would have never gotten into this situation. Steve felt guilty and he knew that everyone would think that he was crazy for feeling that way. A small voice in his head was asking if there was a possibility that this baby could be his fault but he knew that they used condoms and Billy would have told him. No matter how much the other teen disliked him there was no way he would hide something this big. Unless all the things that Steve had told him when they were yelling stuck with him and he actually hates him that much. He supposed the only thing he could do was ask. 

"I uh...actually have to leave early guys, my parents are taking me out and they hate when I'm late so, love you guys, thanks for the party, I'll send you a post card from Chicago!" Steve said and quickly gave them each a quick hug and then practically ran out of the house.

••••

As soon as he had left the Byers' all the confidence of going to see Billy left his body. He really did have dinner with his parents planned but now he couldn't focus on anything that didn't have to do with Billy Hargrove. His mind was also preoccupied with Mark and his stupid smug face. Why in the hell had Billy let Mark fuck him? Well, he had let Steve but Steve was better than Mark. 

His mother had told him to pick up her dry cleaning so she would have a fresh outfit to wear to dinner. Steve wasn't thrilled with having to stop to complete the errand, with his head feeling all spacey and the head ache coming on. He stopped in front of Gerald's dry cleaning and got out of the Beamer. He sighed and tried to look put together as he went inside and quickly got his mother's dress and nice coat. 

"Heard you were headed for University of Chicago," Mr. Gerald told him with a smile as he handed the garments over. 

Steve gave a tight lipped smile. "Yep, I leave tomorrow."

"That's great kid," the old man told him and then went into a twenty minute tangent on how he had attended a university in Indiana only to drop out to run the family business. 

Steve politely nodded along and let out a deep sigh when he was finally released and made it out of the small building. He stuffed the clothes into his back seat and stood up straight when he heard loud voices across the street. 

"Steve!" Sam a guy that Steve sometimes would talk with from the basketball team yelled loudly as he and a group of guys from the basketball team started to cross the street towards him. 

Steve wanted to tell them to leave him alone, but he remembered that he was leaving the next day and would likely never be forced to interact with them again. He looked up and gave them his usual smile. Sam, Paul, Martin, and Mark all made their way up to him. He noticed a lack of Tommy, thank god. However, Mark was there so his mood darkened. 

"Heard you're leaving for college man, Tommy left two weeks ago," One of the guys from the team told him and Steve nodded. 

"Tomorrow actually," Steve told them, getting tired of relaying the information over and over. It was as if his parents had bragged to everyone in Hawkins. 

"Sweet dude, I leave in a week," Mark said and Steve frowned. 

"You're just going to leave Hawkins?" He asked Mark and Mark laughed awkwardly. 

"Uh yeah? Why the hell would I want to stay? Only losers are staying here," he muttered. 

"Yeah I think the only senior who isn't going to college is Hargrove," Paul said and Mark laughed. 

"Not shocked, doesn't have much going on under—

Steve cut him off with a swift punch to his jaw. Mark staggered backwards and clutched his jaw. 

"What the hell man!?" Mark yelled and all the other guys were looking at Steve confused. 

"You're a real piece of shit ya know that?" Steve asked and lunged for him again but this time Mark took a hold of Steve's shirt and was able to get him right in the nose with his fist. 

Steve cursed his fighting abilities and clutched his steadily bleeding nose. He had sworn off the toxic male tendency to work things out with fists, but man Mark had a punchable face. Mark went to go in for some more but Paul pulled him back. 

"Are you still pissed that I fucked Hargrove?" Mark asked and Steve clenched his jaw. 

"Look man, it was a one time thing I'm definitely not sticking around for Hargrove, he isn't anything special," Mark muttered and earned some laughs from the group of guys. 

"You know what? You should fucking go, you don't have anything to offer him anyways, couldn't even give him a fucking orgasm," Steve muttered and turned to leave only to be tackled to the ground by Mark. 

Steve's forehead smacked against the concrete with a sickening crack before he was being flipped and punched in the eye. Shouting began from everywhere around them but Steve was already feeling fuzzy from the fall. All of a sudden Mark was being pulled off and Steve could see one of Hoppers deputies looking down at him. 

"Chiefs on his way," The deputy said and Steve rolled his eyes. 

"Great."

••••

Hopper did not look impressed when he stepped out of the cruiser and made his way towards Steve. 

"You know, I hate being called in on my day off, but you know what pisses me off more? Being called in because the guy I took the day off for got the shit beat out of him in the middle of down town," Hopper muttered angrily. 

Steve hung his head, partially in shame of course, but partially because his head was fucking pounding. 

"Look, I started it and—

"Of course you started it, you always start it Harrington," Hopper muttered. "Always starting it but never finishing it." 

The deputy chuckled along with Hopper and Steve glared at them. 

"Look he was talking shit and I just couldn't help myself." 

"You're leaving for Chicago tomorrow and you come out here trying to get your ass arrested, aren't your parents waiting for dinner?" Hopper asked and Steve cursed under his breath. 

"Shit."

"Yeah shit, look Mark isn't pressing charges but he thinks you have some serious issues now," Hopper told him and tilted Steve's chin to take a look at the damage. 

"Just go to dinner and stay out of trouble until you leave tomorrow," Hopper told him. 

"Yeah whatever," Steve rolled his eyes and pushed off of the hood to the Beamer. 

"No one else was going to confront the asshole so I—I had to, Billy deserves better," Steve sighed as he got into the Beamer. 

"I know kid," Hopper nodded and watched as Steve drive off. 

"What the hell have I gotten myself in the middle of?" Hopper muttered to himself. 

Looks like he'd be swinging by the Hargrove residence to see what the hell was going on. He knew Harrington had some sort of hero complex but with Billy involved? Probably wasn't that simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So wow, lots of things happening now! Next chapter will be posted tomorrow I think for a little Halloween present 🎃🎃 as always I immensely appreciate your love and comments/thoughts! I’ve been writing this since February and I was too scared to post it until now lol


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a BITCH to write, rewrote it TWICE completely. For my angst lovers, this is NOT The end of the angst, it’s not gonna be all fluffy, the angst is only beginning! I figured I’d let Steve and Billy talk but things aren’t gonna work themselves out as easily as this chapter makes it seem hope you all enjoy it! I’m kind of changing canon timeline and making the whole star court situation happen during winter rather than summer. I have an idea of where I’m going with it but I’ll probably have to rewrite like three times until I like where it’s going for sure! Any ideas/theories welcome!

Billy was sitting on the porch drinking orange juice when Hopper pulled into the drive way in the cruiser. The man got out and walked up the path and sat down next to Billy silently. 

"Chief, what are you doing on this fine fucking day?" Billy asked secretly wondering why he wasn't at Steve's stupid party. 

Hopper looked at him and raised his eyebrows as he took his hat off and sat it on his lap. "Why the hell did Steve Harrington—the Steve Harrington you beat the shit out of, your sworn enemy Steve Harrington, just get the shit beat out of him defending your honor?" 

Billy's mouth popped open but he closed it quickly. "No clue man." 

Hopper hummed. "Interesting." 

Billy swallowed nervously. "You know why he did that?"

Hopper chuckled, "I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that Mark was bad mouthing you, and the fact that Harrington knows about that." 

The man pointed at Billy's baby bulge hidden under his crew neck. Billy closed his eyes and let out a breath. "Fuck." 

"Yeah so why exactly would your enemy, someone you hate so mu—

"Okay! Okay I get the point," Billy grumbled. 

"Explain," Hopper said sternly and Billy rolled his eyes. 

"Swear you're more of a dad than my actual dad," Billy sighed. 

"Look, I might have been bored in the beginning of the year and seduced your beloved Harrington, a few times," Billy admitted and tried to sound casual, like it hadn't meant anything to him. His voice and the stain on his cheeks probably gave him away though, if Hoppers look told him anything. He cleared his throat and looked away from the older man.

Hopper let out a stressed breath. "Please, dear God Billy tell me that isn't—Harrington's spawn." 

"Well it sure as shit ain't Marks! That nasty fucker didn't fu—

"Okay! Okay I get it don't need details," Hopper stopped him and Billy almost smirked at the disgusted look on his face. 

"Why the hell didn't you tell me before?" Hopper asked and Billy picked at a thread on his crew neck. 

"You're the first person I've told," Billy whispered and he could see Hopper physically softening at his quite admission. 

"Shit kid," Hopper sighed and rubbed his eyes roughly with his large palms. 

"Yeah shit," Billy agreed. "Wanna know the real kicker?" 

Hopper looked at him and nodded. 

"Need his signature to give it away, to this terrible fucking couple, and he has no clue! But wait it gets better," he laughed. "His mom fucking knows! Cornered me in Melvald's and gave me a check, said that Steve needed to go to college...so yeah I have hush money under my pillow, an unwanted baby inside me and my dad breathing down my neck waiting to rip it all away," Billy confessed and felt like a weight was lifted as his eyes began overflowing with stupid tears. He quickly swiped at them but he wasn't quick enough and he could see Hopper from the side of his blurry eyes move closer to him. The man awkwardly reached out and patted Billy's shoulder. 

"Giving it up is probably the best option kid," Hopper told him and Billy shook his hand off. 

"They're gonna fix him as soon as he's born, mutilate him all cause he's not good enough for them the way he is," Billy said and wiped the rest of his tears off of his face. 

Hopper didn't know what to say to that. He opened his mouth to say something that would make the kid look a little less miserable but a car pulled into the driveway. A man, Neil Hargrove stepped out and walked over to them aggressively. 

"Officer, what did he do this time?" Neil asked and Billy was quick to stand up. 

Hopper stood and looked between the two. "He didn't do anything." 

"Get the fuck in the house William." 

"Hey man don't talk to the kid like that," Hopper said and Billy looked between the two nervously. 

"I can talk to my kid anyway I want to," Neil replied and Hopper sighed and rubbed his mustache. 

"Billy get in the cruiser," Hopper told him and Billy stood still. 

"Go get a change of clothes and get the in the cruiser," Hopper repeated himself and this time Neil laughed. 

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Neil asked and Hopper stood up taller. 

"The chief of police Mr. Hargrove and I don't think this is a safe environment for someone in your sons condition," Hopper said and Neil scoffed. 

"He's a whore who can't keep his—

"Okay so we're going to do this the hard way," Hopper sighed before sucker punching Neil in the face. 

The man looked shocked but his reactions were a little slow and he smelled of whisky. "How about Billy grabs his things and gets in the cruiser and I don't haul your ass to the station and charge you with abuse, and drunk driving huh? How's that sound? Don’t act like the whole town hasn’t seen the bruises you leave on him.” 

"You can't fucking get away with this!" Neil yelled and pressed his fingers to his bleeding nose. 

"I'm the fucking Chief of police, I think I'll get away with it, Billy let's go," Hopper told the teen who was watching with wide eyes. 

He quickly ran inside grabbed the bag he always had prepared to leave sitting by his closet and the check under his pillow. He didn't really want to leave Max alone but he knew she'd be safe with Susan around, and it wasn't like Neil had ever hurt her before. He stepped back on the porch and Neil was nowhere to be found. Billy really didn't want to leave his car and he let his gaze linger on it. 

"I'll have someone drive it over later just give me the keys," Hopper told him when he noticed him staring. 

Billy tossed him his keys and got into the passenger side of the cruiser. He pushed his bag underneath his feet and let out a deep breath. He wasn't sure if it was a relieved breath or not but it did feel good watching his house on Cherry disappear from sight in the rear view mirror. 

••••

"Steven! What happened to your face?" 

Steve sighed and walked past his mother up the stairs to his bathroom. He looked in the mirror and cringed at the cut on his forehead and the bruising that was starting to happen under his eyes. He reached for a towel and wetted it in the sink. His mother appeared in the doorway still looking shocked at his appearance. It would make sense, it wasn't like she had been around to see his face like this all the other times it had happened. 

"It's fine, s'happened before just let me clean it up and I'll be ready to go," Steve told her as he pressed the towel to his nose. 

She sighed and pressed a hand to her temple. "Honestly, I'm not sure how we raised someone who gets in fights, drinks, and fails classes."

Steve scoffed. "Raised? That's what you call leaving a kid at home while you jet set off to the next fucking business meeting in New York?" 

His mother looked taken aback and Steve wanted to take it back if only to avoid confrontation but his blood was already boiling from his long day and he was way too stubborn to back down now. His mother let out a breath and smoothed her shirt.

"I know you're angry but your father and I wanted to set you up for a good life, a prosperous, easy life but every chance you get you fight us on it," she told him and Steve rolled his eyes. 

"You mean when I decide things for myself? How I want my life to be?" 

His mom was giving him a weird look and Steve couldn't place the emotion that was passing over her features. Guilt? Secrecy? He wasn't sure but it was definitely something. Good, she deserved to feel guilty. 

"Steven your father and I will continue to push you to be the best version of yourself, sometimes it will feel like we are being callous and mean, like we don't give you a choice in the matter, it's all in your best interest," she told him sternly. 

"Remember that." 

Steve watched her stand up straighter and let out a breath. "Now I need my dress and then we can get going, the reservation is at 7." 

She left the room and Steve turned back to the mirror. He wanted to tell her to forget about dinner but he reminded himself that tomorrow he'd be far, far away from Hawkins and his parents. He continued to fix up his face the best that he could and changed into a sweater and nice pants. The last thing he wanted to do was go sit through a dinner with his parents and grandparents at some stuffy upscale restaurant. However, his mother made it pretty clear that he had zero choice in the matter, which to Steve wasn't shocking at all at this point.

After a long, drawn out dinner filled with awkward forced laughter from his mother, they were back home and Steve was sitting out back nursing a beer he had been handed by his dad in congratulations. His feet were in the pool, a first for him since Barb had died in it and he felt heavy at the thought of that time. He had been such an asshole and he still felt embarrassed for how he acted then, how everyone saw him act then. Billy hadn't, not fully maybe that's why he could stand him for as long as he did. Not anymore though. He was hoping college would take the sting of that whole affair away and eventually Billy would be a passing thought. 

Steve wanted to laugh at himself for being so pathetic over a fuck buddy. They hadn't dated, they had hung out and had sex for a few months, that's all. It just felt like the first real connection that Steve had, had in a long time and the thought of not feeling that again had Steve feeling even heavier. Hopefully his bad luck would stay behind in Hawkins and not follow him to Chicago.

"Steve honey, phone!" 

Steve sighed and downed the rest of his beer before hefting himself up. His feet were uncomfortably wet, as well as the hems of his jeans but he ignored it and walked inside anyways. He couldn't think of who would be calling him, the only people he hung out with insisted on using the stupid walkie talkie things, and Nancy wouldn't call him neither would Jonathon for that matter. Other than that Steve was a total lone wolf these days. 

He took the phone from his mother and sighed before pressing it to his ear and letting the cord tangle in his fingers. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey Steve I was wondering if you could pick up the Camaro and drop it at my place," Hopper said from the other line. 

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "The Camaro? As in Billy's treasured Camaro? He doesn't care if I drive it?" 

He could see his mother from where she was lounging on the couch with a cup of coffee and her romance novel. She was trying to look discreet as she listened in but Steve wasn't that dense. It was obvious that she was shocked that he was getting a phone call as well. 

"Yes, Billy's Camaro, he's staying with me for awhile and I need someone to drive it over," Hopper told him and Steve bit down on his lip. 

"Is he gonna be pissed that I'm doing it or is he aware that it's me dropping it off?" Steve asked and turned his back to his mother, wishing the phone didn't need a stupid cord. 

Hopper let out a breath against the receiver. "He knows he doesn't care he just wants his car with him so his asshole dad doesn't slash his tires or something." 

"Okay, uh I need the keys," Steve mumbled and pressed a hand to his forehead. 

"I had a deputy put them under your flower pot outside while you were gone," Hopper said and Steve chuckled. 

"What if I had said no?" 

"We both know you wouldn't have, see you soon kid," Hopper said and hung up before Steve could ask what that was supposed to mean. 

Steve put the phone back on the hook and turned to see his mother staring at him, his father across from her completely oblivious to his wife's obvious inner dilemma. Steve wiped his palms on his jeans and grabbed his house keys from the side table near the door. He pushed his feet into some sneakers not bothering with socks. His mother cleared her voice and he looked up at her. 

"Where are you going?" She asked and his father finally looked up from his paper. 

Steve twirled his house keys between his fingers. "Need to help a friend." 

"Who?" She asked and Steve sighed dramatically. 

"Claire, he's leaving for college in the morning maybe let up on treating him like a kid," his dad sighed and went back to his paper. 

For once Steve actually agreed with his father.

"I don't treat him like a kid Richard but he still needs to finish packing," His mother told his father and shifted on the couch.

"I'm done packing, it's the Chief he needs my help," Steve told her hoping he could just leave and she'd drop it without causing an argument the night before he left. 

"Okay, fine but don't come crying to me when you're late to the airport tomorrow."

Steve rolled his eyes and practically ran out the door. 

••••

"You can just drop your bag here, we'll set up the couch for you until I make other arrangements," Hopper said and cleared his throat. 

The kid looked spooked and more vulnerable than Hopper was used to. He was expecting him to bounce back and start bad mouthing and cracking jokes but nope, he had been silent since they got in the cruiser. Hopper took the duffel from him and sat it next to the couch. Billy looked around, it wasn't like this was his first time here. He supposed he was attempting to get used to the idea of living in the small cabin with a guy who was still just an acquaintance really. 

"Okay so...I need to introduce you to someone—well my daughter and I just want to warn you she's a little," Hopper paused and smiled a little. "Unique, different, special I guess." 

Billy's eyebrows raised. "Didn't know you had a kid, thought you were just good at bossing me around like a dad." 

Hopper huffed. "Jane can you come out please?" 

A couple seconds later the door to one of the bedrooms opened and out popped a young teenager who looked like she just stepped out of a Sears catalogue. 

"Jane this is Billy he's going to be staying with us from now on okay?" Hopper asked the girl and she looked from the Chief to Billy before giving a sharp nod and going back into her room. 

"Real friendly kid you got there," Billy muttered and Hopper laughed. 

"She'll warm up to you eventually,” he sighed. 

He then told Billy about how he had recently adopted Jane. He also told him that she was raised in a lab and to not freak out if she moved shit with her mind. Billy was understandably confused by the whole thing but the Chief assured him that everyone else in their group knew about it and that it was all true. Once that was through Billy couldn’t help but want to thank the Chief for what he had done earlier that day. 

Billy fell back against the couch and let out a breath as he kicked his shoes off. "Look, uh thanks for standing up for me, you were actually pretty bitchin' man, the way you sucker punched my dad and all." 

Hopper cleared his throat to hide his smile. "Yeah, don't mention it I've had a few rodeos with asshole dads." 

"Well it was cool," Billy told him. 

"So what do we do now, with the baby and everything?" Billy asked and Hopper sat down in his lazy boy. 

"Whatever you want to kid, adoption, keep it, whatever you feel is right I'll make sure you can do it," Hopper told him and Billy nodded and tapped his fingers on his abdomen. 

"Find a new family?" Billy asked hesitantly. 

He knew for sure that he wasn't giving the baby to the family that his father had picked out. He'd have to give the baby to people who didn't care about his reproductive system and genitals. Why would the couple want a carriers kid but not a carrier themselves? Made no fucking sense in Billy's mind. He couldn't raise a baby on his own, so finding a new suitable, non-asshole family was the only choice. 

"I can see what I can do," Hopper nodded and Billy let out a breath. 

"M'gonna take a shower...If that's okay..." Billy said as he stood up from the couch and gave Hopper a questioning look. 

"Yeah, of course kid your place now too." 

Billy smiled to himself as he turned and walked to the bathroom. Maybe this was a good thing. The Chief seemed like a cool dude, hadn't pulled anything on him, hadn't given him any creepy glances or touches. The guy acted like a big softy dad and that's exactly what Billy had been craving for years. He finally felt a little safe in the small cabin with Hopper, even if his freakish kid was there too. 

Billy took a long shower and by the time he was done he was feeling much better. When he looked in the mirror at his messy hair he silently cursed himself for forgetting to grab his hair products. He towel dried his hair making his curls frizz up a bit and pulled the same clothes that he had taken off back on. He was getting hungry so he wandered into the small kitchen and opened it to find nothing much so he popped open the freezer and his eyebrows rose at the sight of the many boxes of Eggos. He shrugged and reached out for a box but the freezer slammed shut before he could pull it out. He jumped and turned to see the Jane kid standing and watching him. 

“Mine.” 

Billy rolled his eyes at the kid. Kids these days, so entitled. 

“Sharing is caring didn’t you ever learn that shit?” 

“Mine,” she said again and then the dishes were rattling in the cupboards and the chief was running in. 

“Woah woah! Hey! Jane no! Billy is allowed to eat the Eggos too, I can buy more don’t be greedy kid,” Hopper said and pressed a hand to her shoulder. 

Jane sighed and swiped at some blood dribbling out of her nose. Billy whistled. 

“Geez Chief you have a thing for strays with anger issues,” Billy muttered and took the box of waffles out of the freezer. “Think the gremlin over here has me beat though, for the record.” 

“Your Max’s brother,” Jane said and Billy raised his eyebrows. 

“You friends with Max?” 

The girl nodded and sat down at the table. Billy proceeded to make his waffles and sit across from her. She stared at him unnervingly as he ate. 

“You have a baby,” she stated almost like the idea was completely foreign to her. 

Billy nodded and patted his bump and watched as her eyes followed his movement. 

“Yup little fucker kicks a shit ton,” Billy told her and swiped syrup off his lip. 

Janes eyes widened and she looked suddenly very interested in that. “You can feel it move?” 

Billy sighed, this kid had no knowledge of the real world apparently. “Uh yeah here give me your hand.” 

Billy took her hand and he himself was pretty shocked that he had offered. The kid seemed innocent and like she had the potential to be sweet, adults had just tried to hurt her and made her angry. Billy could relate to that. He pressed her palm to where the baby was most active and actually smiled when Jane grinned at him when the baby kicked. 

“Strong little shit isn’t he?” He asked and she nodded and gently patted the spot. 

“A boy,” she smiled to herself and stole one of his Eggos. 

“You ever seen any slasher movies?” Billy asked her and her eyebrows furrowed making him think of a confused puppy. 

“Slasher movies?” She questioned. Billy noticed she repeated most things back. 

“Like crazy dudes in masks stabbing people? Pretty crap but entertaining as hell,” he told her and she looked interested enough to follow him to the tv. He had stashed a VHS copy of Halloween he had rented a week earlier to watch with Max in his bag. 

They started the movie and they were both laughing at the ridiculousness quickly. When Hopper came out to grab a beer he stared at them in surprise. Billy raised an eyebrow at the man. What? He couldn’t enjoy hanging out with a thirteen year old girl? He liked Max well enough these days, what was one more stray kid? Jesus he was starting to sound like a certain King with good hair. 

“So Bill your car is gonna be here soon,” Hopper called out from the small kitchen. 

“Cool thanks,” Billy nodded without looking away from the television. 

“I uh...I asked Steve to drop it off,” Billy swallowed and turned to look at Hopper.

“Why the hell would you do that?” He asked freaking out. 

“Because I’m just giving you a chance to tell him if you want to before he leaves that’s all kid, I know it feels like I’m over stepping I just don’t want you to regret anything,” Hopper told him and Billy let out a breath. 

“Steve?” Jane questioned from beside him. 

Billy rubbed his face with his hands and grumbled under his breath. 

“Don’t tell anyone or your ass is grass got it?” 

Jane giggled. “Sure.” 

Billy narrowed his eyes at her and was gonna say something witty but he was cut off by a knock at the door. He watched as Hopper stood and motioned for Jane to follow him. The girl pouted but followed him out of the room. Billy stared at the door for minute before he stood and crossed the room. 

“It’s just Harrington come on, man the fuck up Hargrove,” he muttered to himself before opening the door. 

Steve was looking at his feet initially but when he looked up Billy whistled at the shiner and gash on his forehead. 

“Found someone new to kick your ass King Steve?” He asked and Steve rolled his eyes with a small smile. 

“You should see Mark okay, I made his nose bleed at least,” Steve said and put his hands on his hips. 

“I’m sure you knocked him out cold,” Billy mocked him gently. 

“Well I was defending your honor so you could be like more grateful,” Steve said and Billy scoffed. 

“Don’t need anyone defending my honor, s’pecially someone who can’t even win a fight,” he rolled his eyes. 

Steve’s eyes took in Billy’s face before he attempted to be subtle when dropping his gaze to his belly. Billy could see him swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down before his brown eyes met his again. 

“So...wow—um congrats I mean,” Steve said and Billy huffed. 

“Yeah I guess,” he shrugged. 

“Mark really?” Steve asked and Billy knew this was the chance to tell him. Steve looked like he knew it too almost.

“Yeah.” 

Steve laughed and ran his hands through his already unruly hair. 

“You’re a bad fucking liar.” 

Billy opened his mouth to speak but Steve stopped him with a loud annoyed grunt.”Jesus, you my mom, my dad, everyone! Why the fuck do you all think you get to make choices for me all the damn time?” 

“Steve—

“No Billy you’re done fucking talking okay? Look where you’ve gotten us this far fuck!” He said and turned from Billy, looking like he was trying to calm down. 

“You have one fucking chance to tell me the truth right now, I know you wouldn’t fuck that asshole okay? You might not like it but I know more about you than you want me to, so tell me right now if that baby is mine,” Steve growled angrily and Billy let out a breath. 

He wiped at the moisture gathering in his eyes and cleared his throat. Steve watched him with narrowed brown eyes. 

“What the hell would this being your baby change Steve? You’re leaving for college tomorrow! We aren’t together!” Billy told him and Steve groaned again. 

“It would change everything Billy! Jesus it’s a baby,” Steve replied and watched Billy look away from him seemingly deep in thought. 

Billy let out a breath. The baby was getting restless most likely due to all the nerves running through Billy’s body. He wanted to tell the truth desperately but he remembered what Mrs. Harrington had told him, Steve had a future he was going to college for fucks sake. He was shocked that Steve had decided to go to college at all, he didn’t want to be the reason he didn’t go. 

“I’m giving it up,” he told Steve and saw Steve’s shoulders slump and heard him curse. 

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me? I know we weren’t together but Jesus man I thought we were friends at least!” Steve yelled at him and Billy felt anger building up. 

“What the hell was I supposed to say Steve? I’m not exactly the kind of person you’d typically see pregnant okay? And I don’t—I’m not good at relationships! I was embarrassed that I got myself into this shit! My dad was pissed and I didn’t—I didn’t want him to hurt you over it and—I’m not keeping it so why would I ruin your life by telling you?” Billy finished and could have sworn that Steve could see the pounding of his heart through his tee shirt. 

They both sat in silence just staring at each other silently. Billy could see Steve freaking out. He expected it, he had just told the teenager that he had fathered a kid. That would probably freak anyone out, especially someone who was set to leave town the following day. Steve was rubbing his temples and letting out deep breaths attempting to calm himself. 

“Okay,” Steve nodded and let out a breath. “Okay.” 

“Okay what?” Billy asked and Steve opened his eyes to look at the other boy. 

“I can defer for a year,” he mumbled to himself and Billy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. 

“Why would you need to do that?” He asked and Steve began pacing. 

“The mall is hiring, that stupid ice cream place, probably won’t make much but it’s—it’s something,” Steve continued as if Billy never spoke. 

“What the hell are you talking about Harrington? Mind letting me in on your damn plans?” Billy asked. 

Steve stopped pacing. “We can make this work Billy, I can wait a year for school and I—I can get a job I’m sure my parents will help and—I mean you’re living with Hopper so he’d help, we can do this.” 

Billy opened his mouth to speak but shut it quickly. Steve’s eyes were sparkling and optimistic as he stared into Billy’s confused eyes. Was Steve actually as dumb as everyone always joked about? He really thought they could raise a baby together? That his parents would be supportive? He had the check under his pillow proving that wrong. He didn’t want to tell Steve that particular detail regarding his mother, he figured that Steve would be a little heartbroken at the fact that his mother had treated the situation so callously. 

“Steve...we can’t have this baby okay? He’s going to new parents once Hopper finds some okay? It’s the best thing we can do for the kid, I can’t raise a baby...I’m—I’m not dad material okay? I couldn’t even handle a relationship with you how could I show a baby unconditional love, I don’t even know what that feels like.” 

Steve’s big brown eyes looked at Billy earnestly. “I don’t either but I think we can figure it out if you let us try!” 

Billy laughed and rubbed his belly softly. “You’re living in a fucking fantasy world man, listen say you defer for a year and get a job at the fucking mall. The baby comes we’re living in Hoppers tiny ass cabin, or in your parents house, you’re making minimum wage, we have a screaming baby we don’t know what to do with, we’d both be miserable and hate each other within five months man. 

“We can’t just try when it comes to having a baby, it can’t be a trial and error thing, that fucks kids up, look at us...the baby is going to a different family. End of story,” Billy told him sternly and Steve rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips.

“I won’t sign the fucking papers.”

Billy laughed. “I’ll fucking forge that shit don’t test me Harrington.” 

Steve’s eyes softened and he rubbed a hand down his face. “Billy come on please just think about it, you can’t just give it up like it’s some old shirt.” 

“I’m not giving it up like it’s an old shirt Steve! I’m giving it to some nice boring couple that Hopper is helping me pick,” Billy told him and Steve scoffed. 

“So I get no say? None?” 

Billy bit his lip. “Don’t make me out to be an asshole okay? This hasn’t been easy on me. Living with my dad while knocked up was fucking terrible and now living with Hopper it’s better but I know I can’t stay here forever, he’s not my dad” 

“I’m broken Steve, I hate admitting that pussy ass shit but I am, I don’t have a mom, I don’t have a dad, I’m knocked up and eighteen years old, I have to give the baby away and—just don’t make me out to be selfish because I’m trying not to be for the first time in my whole damn life. This baby deserves more, a dad who can be soft with it and love it without feeling embarrassed about showing it,” Billy said and wiped at his eyes to stop the moisture from building up. 

Steve sighed and shook his head. “I’ll sign the fucking paper, but I’m not fucking happy about it, I’m not going to pretend that I’m happy about it I’m pissed at you for lying to me.” 

“I don’t expect you to happy about it, go to college man, do something with your life,” Billy told him and Steve grunted. 

“Yeah, like I can just go to Chicago now, leaving everything here now that I know that,” he said gesturing to Billy’s belly. “Is mine.”

“It’s not though, it’s someone else’s.” 

Steve rolled his eyes again. “Whatever.” 

They both stood in silence feeling the tense atmosphere still lingering. Billy wanted to lighten the mood desperately, Steve’s eyes still resembled those of a kicked golden retriever puppy. 

“Mark must think you’re a fuckin’ psychopath,” he said with a chuckle making Steve groan.

“Yeah, he probably has zero clue as to why I antagonised him today, probably looked insane,” Steve laughed lightly. 

Billy shifted on his feet. “You were right.” 

Steve looked up at him curiously. “I didn’t fuck Mark, just wanted to make you jealous, I know that was stupid of me.”

Steve laughed and folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah...I mean...it worked.” 

Billy rolled his eyes fondly. “Look, if you want to be involved with the rest of this—until the baby is out we need to be civil, friends even.” 

“Weird...it’s almost like what I’ve been begging for all year,” Steve muttered.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever,” Billy said and sighed. 

“Thanks for finally being honest with me, it...it means a lot,” Steve told him sincerely and Billy waved it off. 

“If I’m being honest I wasn’t planning on ever telling you unless I had to,” Billy confessed and Steve nodded. 

“What made you change your mind?”

You’re stupid brown eyes and blind loyalty a voice in Billy’s head whispered. 

“Figured it was the right thing to do, and I guess I didn’t want to hate me forever so...” 

“So...it’s a boy then? And everything’s fine with him? You?” Steve asked and eyed Billy’s belly.

“Yes to all three questions, due at the end of November right when you should be back for thanksgiving break so that’s a win-win,” Billy told him. 

Steve gave a small smile. “You want me there?” 

“Well now I do, so you have no choice in the matter, no way am I squeezing a human out of me while you’re off fucking some Co-Ed having a great time,” Billy partially joked. 

“I’ll call you when we find parents, or if anything happens ya know? Just focus on school okay? I don’t want to be the reason that you don’t have a future,” Billy mumbled. 

“Don’t think I’m going to have much of a future but okay, I guess I’ll try, but remember what I said okay? If you need me back, I’m here man,” Steve assured him earnestly. Billy believed him. 

“Got it, now go fuck a professor for me,” Billy smirked. 

“Yeah, no.” 

They both looked at each other awkwardly, neither very good at goodbyes regularly but this felt bigger than just a regular goodbye. Steve stepped forward and awkwardly pulled Billy into a hug. His belly was sort of in the way but Billy let it happen, leaving his hands at his sides. Steve pulled away and tentatively looked at the bump before stepping back. 

“I guess I’m going to Chicago, still doesn’t feel right,” Steve sighed.

“Go, stop being a fuckin’ baby Harrington I got Hopper and the rest of the dip shit squad I’ll be fine,” Billy smiled a small smile. 

“I’ll call you.” 

“I’m not gonna be waiting like some pathetic chick in a rom com by the phone,” he teased. 

“Wouldn’t expect you to,” Steve said and began walking backwards down the path. 

“Get the fuck outta here Harrington.” 

“I think uh...your keeper is waiting for you to go inside, he keeps glaring at me,” Steve muttered eyes shifting to the side. Billy turned to see Hopper causally sitting by the window cleaning his damn gun, like Billy was his daughter talking to some neighborhood bad boy. How embarrassing. 

“Jesus, the guy is like desperate to parent me I swear, I ain’t no little girl,” Billy laughed, secretly liking how Hopper obviously wanted him around and cared for him. 

Steve laughed before turning and walking the rest of the path with his back to Billy. Billy watched until he disappeared into the darkness of the forest. He turned and went inside to see Jane and Hopper trying to act casual like they hadn’t been eavesdropping and trying to intimidate Steve. Billy sat on the couch next to Jane, across from where Hopper was on his lazy boy. 

“So...do we need to hide a certain rich kids body or are we good?” Hopper asked. 

“I can get rid of him like this,” Jane said and snapped her fingers. 

“What did I say about actually threatening to murder people? I was joking kid,” Hopper told her and she gave Billy a wink when the man looked away. 

“No murder needs to happen Chief, we’re good,” Billy told him and relaxed into the couch cushions. 

Hopper didn’t look completely convinced but he nodded. “Who wants take out?” 

Billy and Jane both perked up and Billy basked in the friendly, familial arguing that began over who got to pick where dinner was coming from. The cabin felt warmer than the house on Cherry Street and Billy couldn’t help but enjoy it while it lasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, angst isn’t over! Comments are always appreciated they warm my cold soul 🥺 hope things don’t seem too rushed, I have more planned plot wise to come!


	7. 7.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy and Steve get together some (badly written) smut occurs, upside down stuff begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, things are gonna start moving! This chapter introduces some upside down stuff from the last season at star court. Obviously it’s not gonna follow canon! Hope you don’t hate it! So nervous about this chapter 😫

The day that Billy had heard Hopper tell him that they had found a prospective family he felt a range of emotions. He was excited to meet them, nervous that he wouldn't like them, and hopeful they could give the baby everything he wanted and needed. He was also terribly nervous that Steve wouldn't cooperate. The other teen had been supportive since he had left for college two weeks prior. He called Billy a lot, was interested in the whole adoption process, but Billy could still tell that underneath it all that Steve was still mad at him for everything. He wasn't verbally adamant on keeping the baby but Billy knew that deep down he was hoping he wouldn't give it away. 

He was still sat in the kitchen with the phone in his hand, cord wrapped around his forearm with Steve's phone number practically typed in. He kept chickening out and hanging up. Jane was across from him silently watching and eating an Eggo drenched in syrup. Max was next to her, judging Billy for being too scared to pass the news onto Steve.

"I can call him for you," Max offered and Billy shot her a look. 

"I'll do it when I'm damn ready okay?" He said and raised his eyebrows to his hairline. 

"I don't get why you don't just keep him," Max muttered and twirled her hair around her finger. 

Billy rolled his eyes at hearing the same thing for the hundredth time that day. "I'm eighteen and have no money and I live in a two bedroom cabin Max."

She sighed. "Whatever." 

Billy took a deep breath and typed Steve's number in, this time actually putting the phone to his ear rather than back on the hook. The baby shifted restlessly inside of him and he was convinced that this was the right thing to do. The phone rang a few times before Steve answered.

"Hello?"

Billy let out a breath and looked away from Max and Jane's obviously excited faces. Teen girls always wanting to hear the latest gossip. Much to his surprise they left him alone and scurried to Janes room. Billy was thankful for the privacy, at last. 

"Hey man," Billy said and cringed at his own wobbly voice. 

"Is everything okay?" Steve asked quickly and Billy his a small smile with his hand. 

"Yeah it's—I have good news actually," Billy told him and Steve made a humming noise in acknowledgement.

"So...Hopper found a family," he muttered and waited for Steve's reaction. 

"Oh." 

"Yeah so, figured you could come down this weekend to meet them," Billy told him and Steve sighed. 

"Yeah okay, uh I'll come on Friday night sound okay?" Steve asked.

"Yeah I'll have them come on Saturday so we can have a night to talk with just us," Billy explained, twirling the cord around his finger. 

"Sounds good, my uh—my parents are out of town so you can come over to place if you want to, I can rent that new Fright Night movie from Family Video if you want me to that is," Steve said, sounding nervous.

Billy smiled again and couldn't hide it this time. It kind of sounded like Harrington was asking him on a date. Billy rested his palm on his belly and began planning on what he would wear in order to look at least a little hot despite the baby bump. 

"You gonna cook me dinner too King Steve? This baby is pretty fat man, has a good appetite," Billy told him trying to sound like he was flirting but not trying too hard. 

Steve chuckled. "If you want me to."

"Well I wouldn't say no to some tacos...the kid likes dessert too just sayin," Billy told him and heard Steve huff a breath out. 

"Of course there will be tacos and dessert, Christ what kind of baby daddy do you think I am?" Steve asked and Billy laughed. 

"We will be the judge of that once we have your cooking man," Billy told him and winced when the baby sent a kick to the left side of his ribs. 

"Just get married already Jesus!" A voice that sounded way too much like Maxine shouted from the other line. Shit, Billy had forgotten that Jane had a phone in her room.

"Max hang the fuck up! I'm going to skin you alive you little—

"Sorry but seriously you guys are so annoying," Max said and Billy could hear Jane laughing in the background. 

"Hold on Steve," Billy told the other teen and rolled his eyes as he could hear him laughing too. 

Billy sat the phone on the table and walked to Janes room, shoving the door open. "What the hell Maxine!" 

He walked towards them making them scream and scramble over the bed, laughing the whole time. Billy took the phone, unplugging it in the process and stomped back out of the room. He sat back down with the disconnected phone in his hand and picked up the phone with Steve still waiting on the other line. 

"Sorry little fucking sisters suck ass man," he told Steve. 

"Woah, character development, you call them your sisters now? Baby making you soft Hargrove?" 

Billy bit his lip. "I don't know, maybe I'll let you check to see if I'm hard or soft on Friday night, bye King Steve." 

Billy hung up and felt his cheeks redden at his obvious invitation for sex on Friday. 

"Well...I could have lived forever without hearting that," Hopper muttered as he stepped out of his bedroom already dressed in his uniform for his night shift. 

"Why were you eavesdropping then Chief?" Billy asked and winked at the older man. "I'm knocked up and horny, sue me." 

"Once again, didn't need to hear that." 

Billy held the phone he had confiscated from Jane's room out to Hopper as he passed him and Hopper raised his eyebrows at him.

"Little creeps were eavesdropping," Billy explained. 

Hopper sighed. "I'll talk to them." 

The older man made himself some coffee and sat across from Billy to wait for it to brew. Billy could tell the man had something he wanted to say so he sat back and tapped his fingers on his belly. Hopper folded his hands on the table in front of him and cleared his throat. He was giving Billy his "dad look" and Billy had become pretty accustomed to it at this point. 

"I know I'm not...your dad but I just want to make sure that...uh," he cleared his throat awkwardly. 

"That what?" Billy asked enjoying watching the man squirm. 

"That Steve isn't pressuring you into having sex or anything, just cause you're," he gestured to Billy's belly.

"Pregnant?" Billy supplied. 

"Uh yeah... pregnant doesn't mean that you can't contract STDs and shit, and sex is totally cool during pregnancy, rad as you kids say, bitchin—

Billy laughed out loud. "Oh my god Chief I get it, I use condoms, it might not look like it but I do, but uh...thanks for the talk I guess." 

"Anytime, if you don't wanna you know, do that on Friday you can just call the station—

"Yeah man, got it," Billy smiled and pushed away from the table. 

"I'm stealing your coffee," Billy grinned as he took Jim's favourite mug and poured himself some of Jims coffee. 

"I made extra so jokes on you kid," Hopper joked with him. 

•••••

Billy was nervous. He never got nervous about hanging out with people, or going on dates but this was Steve Fucking Harrington. Had he rejected him a ton of times before? Yes. But maybe they could work shit out this time. Billy had been looking forward to the night all day Friday. His knee had been bouncing at breakfast with Jane and Hopper. He volunteered to make lunch just so he could have something to do with his hands and he and Jane had even went on a walk for some exercise. Now he was rifling through the section of Hopper's closet that the man had cleared for him. Jane was sat on the bed vetoing things that Billy picked out. 

"Come on, just pick something," Billy told her as held out another tee shirt. 

"Max brought magazines last time she was over, it said that for a movie date you should be comfy, but not too comfy and that shirt is too comfy," she told him. He was always shocked when she spoke so much in one go, but since he had moved in she talked all the time. 

"What's wrong with my Sex Pistols shirt?" He asked, offended as he brought the fabric to his chest. 

"Too comfy," she told him as she bounced her feet over the edge of the bed. 

"Okay...how about my pale jeans and one of Hoppers sweaters?" He asked and Jane smiled and nodded enthusiastically. 

"Yes, that's not too comfy," she nodded in agreement. 

Billy pulled out one of Hoppers old sweaters the man had given him. It was oversized and kind of ugly but Billy thought it looked good with his light jeans. He put the sweater on over his white undershirt and the pulled it down over his jeans. He stepped to the side where Hopper had a mirror propped up on a dresser. He looked good, he had cut his hair a little on the ends and his baby bump wasn't huge yet. The jeans hugged him right, even if he had to fasten the button with a rubber band. 

"Okay I think I'm ready to go," he told Jane. 

He left her in Hopper's room and grabbed his keys from where he kept them next to the door. He walked out of the cabin to his car and climbed into the drivers side. He was excited to have a good night, he had missed hanging out with Steve. He knew he'd been an ass to the guy but Billy was willing to try in order not make things awkward and tense. They needed to be on the same page with the baby coming. 

He pulled out of the drive and began trekking down the gravel road. Hopefully things wouldn't be too awkward between them. He knew they couldn't just jump into bed like they usually did, they actually needed to talk some things through. However, just eating tacos and watching a scary movie sounded like nice stress relief to Billy. Maybe it would give him the chance to feel like a normal guy again without a baby strapped to his middle. 

He turned up his radio and nodded his head to the song playing. Singing along to a rock song with the window down, soaring down the street almost made him feel like his old self again, flirty, cocky, and way too over confident.

He pulled into the Loch Nora area minutes later and parked in front of Steve's house. His parents weren't home, as per usual not like Billy expected them to be there, Steve had said they were out of town. He was sure that Mrs. Harrington wouldn't be too happy to see him with Steve. Steve himself would probably be pissed if he knew that his mother knew about the baby and how she had given Billy a check as some kind of hush money. 

Billy trudged up the steps to the house and pounded on the door. Seconds later, as if Steve had been waiting for him at the door like a Labrador, the door opened. Steve grinned at him all warmly, leaning against the door trying to look all smooth. Billy rolled his eyes and pushed his way into the house.

"Nice to see you too," Steve muttered as he pushed the door closed behind Billy. 

"Where's the food I'm starved," Billy said as he kicked his shoes off and dropped his jacket on the bottom step of the stairs. 

Steve picked it up almost immediately and hung it on the coat rack. He turned to look at Billy and reached up to tuck a loose hair behind his ear. "Well uh ya see, I'm actually not a very good cook and I figured you might wanna help me?" 

Billy laughed and put his hands against his lower back to ease some of the strain. He gave Steve his best bitch face and let out a sigh. 

"You've gotta be shittin' me Harrington, I gotta cook this baby and your dinner? Jesus," he teased and Steve's eyes widened. 

"You can sit down, I'm sure I can figure it out, tacos couldn't be that hard right?" He asked not looking fully confident in himself. 

"I'll help, you better have something I can eat while I cook though I'm starved man," he muttered and led the way to the kitchen. 

The ingredients for the tacos were strewn across the sleek marble counters and Billy could tell that Steve had been at least trying to attempt to cook for him. The gesture was sweet, even though he hadn't succeeded. Billy grabbed a bag of Doritos that had been tossed to the side of the counter and began snacking on them. Steve watched from the doorway, hands in his pockets looking all out of place and awkward. 

"Put the meat in the pan," Billy told him as he leaned against the counter. 

Steve quickly moved to do as told. Billy watched as he moved around the kitchen following Billy's orders like an obedient puppy. He was in the middle of chopping lettuce when he suddenly turned to Billy with curious eyes. 

"So...the uh...potential parents, know anything about them?" He asked, eyes carefully avoiding Billy's belly. 

Billy scratched under his belly button where his sweater was stretched. He didn't know much about the family that Hopper had been speaking to. He didn't want to know too much, just enough to know that the kid would be taken care of. 

"Uh I guess it's some guy who's an accountant or some shit and a Betty Crocker type who wants to bake all day and tend to a screaming baby? I don't know man, didn't ask the Chief much about them," he told Steve who furrowed his eyebrows, turning back to chopping the lettuce. 

"Just...shouldn't we know like everything about them? We're giving them our baby I mean..." Steve muttered and Billy could see his cheeks flushing down his neck.

Billy sat the nearly empty bag of Doritos back onto the counter. "You can ask them whatever your little heart desires tomorrow Harrington, and if you don't like them we can move on to the next contestants." 

"Really? I actually—I mean you want me to have a say in this?" Steve asked looking genuinely surprised that Billy was giving him some of the control. 

"Jesus I must be a real fucking dick for you to be shocked that I'm letting you help pick the parents for our baby," Billy snorted and Steve stopped breaking up the meat in the pan to look at Billy again. 

Billy could see a lot of emotion swirling around in those deep brown irises. The guy had no business having such big Bambi eyes. Billy couldn't help but imagine those eyes on a little baby, they would no doubt get the kid whatever he wanted. 

"I mean, you didn't tell me about the baby until like weeks ago so...why would I expect you to care about how I feel?" Steve asked and looked away from Billy's face quickly, as if to hide the emotion on his face. 

Billy felt his shoulders deflate at that. Geez he could see how much of a dick that made him for sure. He wasn't going to deny that what he did had been a shitty thing to do. Steve deserved to know about his baby, but Billy had been scared and his life had never felt so insecure before. Steve thought that Billy thought that he didn't deserve to have a say in anything and that made Billy feel terrible. Granted, his hormones had been all over the place for the past month. A week earlier Billy had gotten all teary because Hopper had made a joke about his stuff being all over the cabin and Billy had taken it as a 'you take up too much room, you're a burden' type of way. He had sat in the Camaro for an hour contemplating if Hopper wanted him to leave and was just putting up with him out of pity.

However, now the emotions didn't feel out of place. He felt like shit for lying to Steve Harrington, who had been a freakin angel through everything, always looking out for everyone and being way too nice. The guy hadn't deserved to be treated the way Billy had treated him in the past. Maybe the pregnancy was making him soft, he didn't know, he just knew that the thought of making Steve feel like he didn't have a say in what happened to their baby made his eyes get embarrassingly wet and his cheeks burn. 

"It's just...I know you don't want to keep it and I get it, seriously what the hell would two teenagers do with a baby? And I'm in college now and you want to be able to have a future too," Steve was rambling while breaking down the meat a little too aggressively. 

"And I respect the fact that this is your body and you are doing all of the grunt work, so I'll stop fighting you about the adoption, it's just...I didn't get a chance to like, say goodbye I guess? Which sounds crazy the baby is still inside of you but I've never seen them or—or felt them and—

Billy turned Steve around by his hips and pulled his slender fingers forward so that his hands were pressed to his bump. Steve went silent and his eyes blinked open and closed a few times before looking up at Billy. 

"It's warm," he said, fascinated almost and Billy chuckled. 

"Uh yeah? It's hot in here and I'm wearing a thick ass sweater," Billy replied and let Steve's hands wander around the bump, searching. 

"Kids asleep, I mean I'm assuming hasn't moved since I was in the car, but next time he wakes up I'll let you know," Billy told the other boy who was now fascinated with his popped out belly button. 

"I have a picture in my wallet, I was going to give it to you, but I never got around to it, and I do care what you think Harrington," Billy reached into his back pocket to retrieve the picture he had stuffed into it gently. 

"That's why I didn't tell you, sounds stupid but between my dad making me feel like shit cause of this I didn't want to open up to anyone else about it either, well until the Chief found me, that's a whole other thing though," Billy admitted and stepped back so he could thrust the sonogram at Steve. 

His cheeks were hot due to the amount of feelings that were being shared which would always embarrass him greatly. Steve took the photo and his eyes practically melted as they grew all soft taking in the photo of their son. Billy studied the other boy as he took in the baby who was looking quite baby like these days with his side profile and button nose on display. Steve's eyes lifted from the picture and Billy was relieved to see that they were just as wet as his own felt. 

"Fuck that is definitely a baby," he whispered and looked back down at the picture. 

"That is the general consensus, yes." 

Steve let out a wet laugh. "Christ this kid is gonna be a fucking god in the looks department I mean not to brag but I'm not called Steve 'The Hair' Harrington for nothing." 

"Well our kid is definitely going to be modest," Billy teased. 

"Can I keep it?" Steve asked and held up the picture. 

"Yep I have a ton," Billy told him and Steve pulled his own wallet out and carefully tucked it in. 

Then he was all up in Billy's space with his hands on his belly again. His big doe eyes were once again searching Billy's and then his lips were pressing against Billy's. Billy couldn't help but sigh as Steve sunk his fingers into the hair at the back of his neck in order to pull him closer. Billy let him and opened his mouth in order to press his tongue against Steve's. The initial touch made Billy vibrate, pregnancy hormones were pretty cool with how horny they made him. 

"Fuck I've missed kissing you," Steve panted against his mouth before moving to his jaw and then his throat. 

He sucked gently right next to Billy's Adam's apple before moving to the spot right behind Billy's ear. Billy's hands tightened into Steve's shirt and Steve let out a breath as he pushed Billy's hips back so that he was leaning against the counter. His hand found Billy's belly again as he sucked his way up and down the other boys long neck and he began palming it gently. 

"Jesus Steve," Billy sighed as Steve dropped to his knees. 

"Wait! Wait hold on," Billy yelled to get the other boys attention who was already undoing his pants. 

Steve looked up at him with disappointment already marring his pretty features. "You're gonna do this again? Come on man, I have feelings for you, you have my baby legit inside of you right now can't I jus—

"The stove you idiot, turn it off before you ruin the meat cause I'm still fucking hungry, and then you can worship me or whatever it is you wanna do with all of your pent up feelings," Billy teased. 

Steve leaned back and reached up to turn the stove off without getting off of his knees. "You make me sound like some chick flick cliche."

"You are," Billy said and Steve rolled his eyes and continued unbuttoning Billy's jeans. 

"Have you...been with anyone since..." 

"No! Just—hurry up already my ankles are swelling from standing as we speak man," Billy whined and Steve had the audacity to laugh. 

"Sexiest thing I've ever heard before going down on someone," Steve muttered and pulled Billy's pants and boxers down, allowing his erection to spring forward. 

"Flattered that me kissing your neck got you hard," Steve smiled and took a hold of the straining cock. 

He rubbed it lovingly from root to tip making sure to swipe his thumb under the head and over the slit in the way he knew Billy liked. Billy's hands reached back to steady himself against the counter as he let out a breath of hair. His belly was a big mound not exactly allowing him to see the show which was a little disappointing but kind of exciting seeing he couldn't actually see when Steve put his lips around his tip, but god he could feel it. 

"Fuck Harrington, have you been practicing on other—fuck—people?" Billy asked and felt Steve hum against him as his lips slid down his length and back up, his hand holding what he couldn't fit into his mouth at the moment. He slid back off and let his hand lazily jerk the other boy.

"No...found a few videos in the back section at a video place though, might have picked up on some stuff," Steve smiled before going back down, further this time causing him to gag a little. 

Billy could feel his dick actually jerk in Steve's mouth at the thought of the doe eyed boy watching gay porn close enough to actually learn how to suck cock properly. Shit, he kind of felt like he had corrupted poor Harrington. His dick hit the back of Steve's throat and he could feel Steve's nose tickling the blond hairs at the base of his cock and Billy thought, fuck it! Corrupting Steve Harrington hadn't been all that bad if this was the outcome. 

"Holy shit! Okay woah, never been-uh-deep throated before Christ Harrington," He blurted out and his hand left the counter to sink into Steve's soft brown hair. 

Steve hummed around him again and this time Billy pushed him off. "Okay get the fuck on me." 

He turned and braced himself against the counter and looked over his shoulder at Steve who looked debauched still kneeling on the ground, lips pink and wet and eyes glassy with lust. 

"Before the start of the new decade Harrington come on!" Billy whined pathetically, hormones man. 

"Okay—uh I need a condom and lube and—

"I'm already knocked the fuck up no you don't and I am fucking wet as Niagara Falls—you just deep throated me man I'm ready!" 

Steve stood with pink cheeks but a cocky look on his face none the less. "Well that pumped up my ego for at least the next year." 

Billy let out a breathy laugh as Steve finally pushed his own jeans down. He braced himself on the counter and waited for Steve to stop lovingly touching his hips and caressing his belly. Finally after what felt like hours, Billy felt the blunt head of Steve's cock against his entrance. He instinctively pushed back against it and let out an embarrassing breathy moan as Steve finally slid in. 

"You really haven't fucked anyone since me, Christ you have like a fucking vice grip on my dick," Steve laughed and pressed up against Billy's back, caging him in. 

Typically Billy would want to throw him off for caging him and caressing him but not today. Today, Billy was going to let himself enjoy everyone of Steve's touches and sweet gestures. Billy arched his neck in invitation and Steve immediately pressed his pink lips to the juncture between his neck and shoulder. Billy sighed as Steve began to move quicker and his eyes landed on a family portrait of the Harrington's. His eyes took in the form of Mrs. Harrington and he couldn't help but smile smugly at it as her son pretty much worshipped him. She probably wouldn't be happy with the whole situation, seeing as she wanted Billy to never tell Steve. Serves the bitch right. 

A particularly well angled thrust pulled Billy out of his thoughts and right back into the moment as Steve wrapped a hand around his cock and began jerking him to the time of his thrusts. 

"Shit Steve I can't—fuck," he breathed, head falling back against Steve's, his hair tickling the nape of his neck. 

Steve let out a breath and then shifted slightly and then Billy was coming around his cock. Steve cursed and released as well with a huff against Billy's neck. Once they had both rode out their orgasms Steve pressed a kiss to Billy's shoulder and gently pulled out. Billy pulled his pants back up and slowly turned around awkwardly as Steve buttoned up his pants. Billy could feel his cheeks heating up and he hoped they wouldn't get all awkward because they had sex. Well he was hoping that he himself wouldn't get awkward and want to run off like he usually did. Steve looked like he had the same thought as he pushed his hair out of his face and gave Billy a small smile. 

"So...that happened," Steve laughed and Billy bit down on his lip and shifted awkwardly. 

"You're blushing," Steve pointed out and cupped Billy's jaw in order to take in the pretty pink of his cheeks. 

Billy shook him off. "Hormones." 

"Mmhmm," Steve hummed and turned back to the stove where the meat was only slightly burned thanks to Billy turning the stove off. 

"So we're gonna not be awkward about this okay? I'm gonna make tacos and we're gonna watch the movie like normal human beings who just fucked against a kitchen counter," Steve told him, tossing a glance over his shoulder.

Billy smiled a little. "I'm not gonna run, don't worry." He shifted uncomfortably. "But I'm gonna need to use the bathroom." 

Steve's nose scrunched up. "This is why I was gonna get a condom ya know." 

"Yeah, yeah," Billy rolled his eyes and walked off to find the bathroom. 

Steve watched him leave out of the corner of his eye and once he was out of sight he let out a long breath. He hoped that he hadn't fucked up everything by jumping into sex again so fast. If Billy's shy demeanor and blush were anything to go by, he hadn't...yet. Maybe most proper dates didn't start with hot kitchen sex but hey, when had he and Billy done anything the proper way? Steve took the finished meat off of the stove and poked his head into the hall to see if he could hear Billy coming back. He didn't hear anything so he ran to the mirror in the hall and quickly fixed his messy hair and his shirt. He ran back to the kitchen attempting to look nonchalant as he chopped lettuce. 

Billy came back minutes later and Steve gave him a smile. "Foods done, is it edible? Who knows! But it smells okay." 

"Just what I love to hear before eating Harrington," Billy laughed and grabbed a plate with two tacos on it. 

They headed to Steve's bedroom so Billy could prop his feet up on the bed more comfortably. Steve turned the movie on and they settled in. The air was a little awkward but Billy ignored it in favor of eating his tacos and one of Steve's. In the middle of the movie Steve found himself sitting much closer to Billy, their arms and thighs touching. As silly as it sounded seeing as they had sex less than an hour ago, it felt incredibly intimate for them. He looked down at their thighs but was distracted by Billy's belly quite literally moving like some kind of alien was inside. 

"Holy shit is that normal?" He asked sitting up alarmed as the bump rolled. 

Billy turned to look at him with a confused look on his face. "Huh?" 

Steve pointed at the bump uncomfortably. "It's like—an alien."

Billy looked down at his bump and smoothed a hand over it. He had taken off his sweater a bit ago and was only in his undershirt. The baby was rolling around, like he typically did after dinner. 

"It's normal he's just rolling," he told Steve who still looked slightly worried. 

"Doesn't it feel like weird?" He asked with raised eyebrows. 

"Uh...I don't know I'm used to it," Billy replied and shrugged.

"Can I touch it?" 

"Knock yourself out Harrington," Billy said and leaned back to allow Steve better access to his belly.

The brunet pressed his entire hand to the bump and laughed when the baby's foot pressed hard against him. "Holy shit it's like...it's alive in there woah." 

"Did you think it wasn't alive?" Billy teased. 

"No it's just damn, man that's our kid in there moving around and he can hear us and—shit." 

Billy pretended to be unaffected by Steve's reaction and facial expressions, pretending to be invested in the movie still but he found his eyes sliding to Steve's face when the other boy looked back down at his belly fascinated. His hand was rubbing circles and occasionally poking at the places he could feel the baby's feet. Billy felt his lips pulling into a smile when Steve began speaking to it. 

"You're a strong little guy aren't you? With big ole' feet like your daddy," he spoke with a goofy grin. 

"I don't have big feet! I have average sized, totally normal feet," Billy scoffed. 

"Bet you're gonna have his chubby cheeks too huh? His thick thighs, his..." Steve paused to look at Billy who was glaring at him. "His mean, intimidating scowl." 

"But that's okay, cause you're gonna be so dang cute! Yes you are!" Steve sang happily and Billy cringed at how openly embarrassing Steve was being. 

"Don't give me that look, I'm talking to our baby man, that gives me an excuse to sound like an idiot," Steve told him patting the belly happily. 

"Ya know I always thought I'd have kids like in my thirties. Have a big house and a dog and I'd be super siked about it," Steve told him looking up with his big brown eyes. 

"It's not like I'm not siked that he's coming, I totally am, but it's also kinda shit man, handing him over like he's nothing—and I know I told you I'm not going to fight about the adoption but I just wanna let you know that it sucks and if I could keep him and provide for him I would," Steve all but whispered and pressed his lips to Billy's belly. 

Billy held his breath as his eyes got all wet. He cleared his throat and let his hand fall to Steve's hair petting it back. "I know." 

"It's gonna be hard to give him away ya know, for me to give birth to him and hand him off it's gonna...hurt and I need—I need to know that you'll be there when he comes," Billy admitted and Steve's eyes softened. 

"Of course I'm gonna be there," Steve assured him placing one last kiss to the bump before moving up the bed to kiss Billy softly. 

"I hate asking people for things, it's embarrassing but I need to know that you'll be the strong one and I know that sounds selfish but I don't think I'll be able to—to hand him off when the time comes," Billy elaborated and looked away from Steve attempting to hide the embarrassing moisture in his eyes. Steve's hand flew out to stop him by the chin. 

"We're in this together, and believe it or not I'm actually pretty good at being the strong one if you'd only let me more often tough guy," Steve smiled at him. 

"Okay," Billy nodded his eyes darting to Steve's lips. He leaned in and kissed him chastely before pulling back. 

Billy wiped his eyes and cleared his throat. "Enough chick flick moments Harrington, you got sweats I can borrow? No way am I driving with my jeans digging into my stomach." 

Steve chuckled and rolled off of the bed walking to his dresser. "Here's some of my dads old ones, they are uh, bigger." 

Billy raised an eyebrow. "You callin me fat?"

"No! Your belly is just—ya know sizeable." 

"That's your baby asshole not my belly, he's getting all chunky and making me look huge," Billy complained as he pushed up from the bed and snatched the sweats from Steve's hands. 

"You could stay the night ya know" Steve said and Billy sighed. 

"I feel bad leaving Jane alone all night so I should probably go," Billy told him and Steve deflated. 

"But obviously I'll see you tomorrow for that meeting and maybe I'll come back to your place and we can have a slumber party, I'll even braid your hair," Billy teased. 

"Honestly bold of you to assume I'd let you touch my hair," Steve snickered. 

Billy smiled to himself and pushed his jeans off of his legs. He proceeded to kick them off and pull on the soft pair of sweatpants. Steve sat on the bed and watched as Billy tugged his sweater down and let out a breath. "I'm seriously breaking a sweat from changing my pants." 

Steve chuckled and moved forward to press his hands to Billy's belly. He patted it gently before leaning back on the bed. "When do you think you're gonna have him?" 

Billy ran his palm down the slope of his belly. "Fuckin' soon I hope not looking to pushing out his huge Harrington bowling ball head though." 

"Hey! My head is normal sized!" 

"Yeah, yeah, probably the end of November, first week of December somewhere around that, like I said, I'll call you and shit and you can come back and witness the miracle that is child birth," Billy rolled his eyes. 

Steve smiled warmly. "Thanks for ya know, letting me be involved I know we had a rocky start...to say the least." 

"I was a dick man, but past stuff ya know? Moving on...I should probably head out," Billy said and scratched the back of his neck. 

Steve hopped off of the bed and moved past Billy into the hallway. Billy followed behind him down the stairs and to the door. Steve bent down and helped him into his shoes and Billy couldn't help but roll his eyes fondly at the mother hen behavior. Once the shoes were on securely Steve stood back up and shyly pressed his lips to Billy's. 

"Drive safe, I'll see you tomorrow," Steve told him as he opened the door.

"Adios Harrington," Billy said and saluted the other boy before sliding into the Camaro. 

He pulled out of the driveway and kept his eyes on his rear view mirror so he could see Steve standing on the porch until he disappeared from view. Billy found himself smiling as he cruised down the back road. He turned up his radio and nodded his head to the song playing. Singing along to a rock song with the window down, soaring down the street almost made him feel like his old self again, flirty, cocky, and way too over confident.

It had been a good night, a great night actually and he felt as if things could finally be looking up.

"So bud great night huh?" He asked his belly with a grin. He still felt a little stupid when he talked to the baby, but hey the kid was moving around and they were alone so it wasn't like anyone could judge him for it. 

"King Steve can be, regrettably enough to admit, pretty cool sometimes," he rolled his eyes fondly and baby stretched his little feet out causing Billy's belly to move in a creepy manner. 

"What the—

Out of nowhere something came bounding into the street. Billy wasn't sure if it was an animal because it happened so fast. The thing smacked right into the Camaro's windshield shattering it and causing Billy to smack his head against the wheel. He attempted to get control but the car spun off the street as his hands flew from the wheel. When the car came to a stop on the side of the street, Billy cursed and pressed his hand to his head which felt like it was split. He pulled his fingers away to see blood. 

"Shit," he muttered and pressed his hands to his belly. The baby was moving still, if not a little less enthusiastically. Billy sighed in relief that he was okay and pushed the door open. 

He stepped out into the chilly night and looked around cautiously. 

"Hello?" He called out and stepped around the Camaro to take in the damage. 

"Shit, Chiefs gonna kill me," he sighed and winced as blood fell down his face from the cut near his hair line.

A rustling in the bushes caused him to spin around to see what the source of the noise was. He cautiously walked toward it wanting to see if it was an injured animal or something. He peeked through the bush to see nothing but some slime left on the leaves. 

"Nasty," he mumbled touching the goo. He pushed the bushes branches to the side and walked further into the forest.

"Hello?" He called out again, not sure why since an animal probably wouldn't call back. 

Then his feet were being pulled out from under him and he was being dragged along the ground. 

••••

Billy opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling. His vision felt funny and the baby was quite literally squirming in his belly. He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around confused as to how he ended up where he was. The last thing he could remember was driving down the street and listening to music and then his memory went all black. 

His skin felt hot though and he pushed up from the bed and began walking to find a bathroom. He stepped into the hall and immediately recognised that he was inside of Steve's house. Shit, they had a date planned, did he fall asleep? He leaned against the doorway and lifted his fingers to his hairline, remembering that he had been bleeding for some reason.

"What the hell?" 

He had gotten in a car accident the night before. His palms flew to his belly again and the baby was still moving restlessly. He rubbed over warm skin hoping to calm them down but it didn't seem to be working. Billy carefully stepped away from the doorway and made his way to the bathroom where he had remembered it to be. He pushed the door open and flipped the light on. He looked into the mirror and immediately checked his hair line. There wasn't even a scratch on him. 

His skin felt hot and clammy so he turned the shower on and stepped inside. His head still felt fuzzy, the baby still restless. Maybe he'd dreamed it? The doctor had mentioned that vivid dreams were sometimes symptoms of pregnancy. He quickly washed himself and tried to feel a little more oriented. A knock on the door had Billy jumping out of his skin.

"Yeah?" He called out. 

"Hey are you okay in there? Feeling better?" Steve questioned through the door. 

Better? Had he acted weird the night before? Why didn't he have any memory of returning to Steve's house? Or even telling Steve he didn't feel well. Maybe his blood pressure was high? 

"Uh...I think I should go home and sleep it off," he called out as he turned the shower off. 

Steve opened the door just as Billy was wrapping a towel around himself. "I can't believe I gave you food poisoning, I'm soooo sorry." 

Billy furrowed his brows. "It's—it's okay man."

Steve was giving him a weird look. "You're all pale, and sweaty are you sure you shouldn't go to the hospital?" 

"No! No I'm fine I'm just gonna go home and sleep it off like I said," Billy replied as he dropped the towel and pulled his clothes back on. 

Take him. 

"What?" He asked out loud. 

Steve's brown eyes narrowed in confusion. "I didn't say anything." 

Take him. 

Billy shook his head and swore not to eat anymore salt, his blood pressure must be through the roof. He was told horror stories about preeclampsia but damn. He felt crazy. 

"I really think I should take you to the hospital," Steve said once more in concern. 

Billy pushed past him and walked down the stairs carefully. "I'm fine, probably my blood pressure, I just need to put my feet up and drink some water and shit." 

"Should I drive you home? I mean last night you attempted to drive but you ended up coming back cause you got sick and couldn't make it home." 

Billy's eyebrows scrunched up. "Oh—uh yeah okay, wait did I drive back?"

"Uh, you called from a payphone remember? I picked you up," Steve said still not looking convinced that Billy didn't need a hospital. 

The ride back to the cabin was filled with silence as Steve worried to himself and Billy tried to make sense of everything that had (or hadn't?) happened. As they passed by where Billy had thought he had crashed, there was no evidence to be seen and the Camaro was no where to be found. Billy's head felt like it was aching from all of the confusion. 

"Should I come in and watch you or—

"No, don't need a baby sitter Mommy Steve," Billy snorted and pushed the door of the Beamer open. 

He stepped out and took a deep breath before peering into the Beamer again to look at Steve. "Look I'll see you later tonight for the whole meeting with the family okay, and I'll call before to update how I'm feeling and shit." 

Steve looked relieved. "Yeah okay, see you then." 

Billy gave him a thumbs up and walked up the path to the cabin. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. He still felt fuzzy as he walked into his small area that was now separated with a curtain for privacy. Hopper had been talking about building on a addition so Billy could have a new room. Billy liked the idea, it made his situation feel more permanent and secure. 

"Look who's back and never thought to call."

Billy turned to the voice to see Hopper sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in front of him. He looked tired, probably was seeing as he had the night shift and probably had just gotten home before Billy had. The man looked irritated, but not in the violent way Neil always did. He looked irritated but worried like a dad who cared would. Billy kicked his shoes off. 

"Sorry, weird night think I need some more sleep," Billy told him. 

"Yeah well Steve called and said you got food poisoning or something," Hopper muttered. 

"So why're you complaining I didn't call if Steve did?" Billy rolled his eyes. 

"Touché," Hopper muttered. 

"Jane's staying with Max tonight at Will's so you'll have the place to yourself tonight, the couple is going to be here at 8, are you sure you don't need me to stop by?"Hopper asked him as he sipped his coffee. 

"Imma big boy Chief, don't need you holding my hand," Billy muttered and fell back on the couch to hopefully get some sleep. 

Hopper snorted, "fine, just call the station if you change your mind." 

•••••

Billy woke up with a throbbing pain in his head. He groaned and twisted himself into a seated position. It looked like he was in a dark room, the floor was cold and it looked like he was in some sort of factory or shed, if the metal walls were anything to go by. He pushed himself off the ground carefully and smiled to himself when he felt the baby shift inside of him.

"We're okay buddy," he spoke aloud, not sure if he was reassuring the baby or himself. 

He turned to see if he recognized where he was at and sighed when he couldn't tell. He walked forwards and furrowed his brows when he realized that he wasn't in a shed, it looked like he was underground in some sort of storage room. Billy was starting to feel scared, had he been taken? Was someone going to cut his baby out and let him die like he had seen on the news a few times?

Hadn't he went back to the cabin and took a nap? How had he gotten here? He tried to remember but everything felt like a void in his mind. 

"Hello?" He called out, voice not as confident as usual. 

"How did I get here?" He asked out loud and winced as the pain he had been experiencing due to his swollen ankles flared up. 

The last thing he could remember was being dropped off by Steve and going to sleep on Hoppers lumpy old couch, now he has was locked in some weird basement. Light streamed in from where a light had been turned on from outside a steel door. Billy stepped back towards the opposite wall and let out a breath. He didn't have any weapons but maybe he could manage to fight whoever it was off with his hands. 

A slot in the door moved and then Billy was staring at a pair of dark eyes. "Ah, he's up." 

"What the hell do you want from me?" Billy asked with a glare. 

"You have a—what is word?" He asked someone Billy couldn't see. The man had a thick Russian accent and Billy was really starting to get uncomfortable with the whole situation. 

"A hitch hiker," the other man provided making the first man chuckle. 

"Yes, a hitch hiker attached to you, we want it," the man said and Billy stepped farther away from the man. 

"You can't have my baby you fuckin' freak," he told them, heart pounding in his ears. 

The man laughed again. "We don't want that, stupid American." 

"We want the beast that found you in the forest, see we've been looking for it." 

"What?" Billy asked feeling his skin crawling. 

"How'd—how did I get here?" Billy asked looking around confused. 

"We called to the beast and it came," the first man said and Billy let out a gasp. 

A sharp pain creeping through his body caused him to fall to his knees. It wasn't coming from his belly so he knew it wasn't the baby. Panic began to surge through his body and he looked up at the two Russians who were still staring at him through the slot in the door. 

"What's going on?" He asked desperately wanting the pain to stop. 

"Just relax, we will help you," a different man said as he stepped into view. The light reflected off the mans white hair as he stared down at Billy through the slot in the door. 

Billy looked down at his arms and his eyes widened at the sight of thick black vein like lines running under his skin.

"My name is Dr. Brenner, I'm going to help you." 

Billy looked up at the man with tears In his eyes before he felt himself falling into blackness once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long ass wait! Chapter took me forever I kept rewriting it over and over. I’m still working out where this is gonna go from here. I brought Brenner in since we aren’t positive if he was actually dead or not. I think I know what’s gonna happen but who knows at this point. Hope you didn’t hate it and of course ideas are always welcome! Thanks so much for taking the time to read this shitty little fic 😌 I don’t edit very well so sorry if there’s any huge annoying mistakes!

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it ❤️🥺 I have a lot more written if anyone is interested! Let me know what you thought, any ideas, if tags needed to be added, I love hearing from readers ❤️❤️ I haven’t posted for a long time and I’m a bit nervous, first chapter is pretty Steve centric but the rest is Billy centric


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